Postage stamps and postal history of Gabon
Encyclopedia
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
s and postal history
Postal history
Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of postage stamps and covers and associated material illustrating historical episodes of postal systems...
of Gabon
Gabon
Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...
.
Gabon is a country in west central Africa sharing borders with the Gulf of Guinea
Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....
to the west, Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...
to the northwest, and Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
to the north, with the Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...
curving around the east and south. Its size is almost 270,000 km² with an estimated population of 1,500,000. The capital and largest city is Libreville
Libreville
Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon, in west central Africa. The city is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea, and a trade center for a timber region. As of 2005, it has a population of 578,156.- History :...
.
First posts
The earliest post officePost office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
was set up at Libreville
Libreville
Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon, in west central Africa. The city is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea, and a trade center for a timber region. As of 2005, it has a population of 578,156.- History :...
in 1862; mail from there was routed through the British post office on Fernando Po
Bioko
Bioko is an island 32 km off the west coast of Africa, specifically Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea with a population of 124,000 and an area of . It is volcanic with its highest peak the Pico Basile at .-Geography:Bioko has a total area of...
(now Bioko
Bioko
Bioko is an island 32 km off the west coast of Africa, specifically Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea with a population of 124,000 and an area of . It is volcanic with its highest peak the Pico Basile at .-Geography:Bioko has a total area of...
). Mail used the stamps of the French Colonies general issue, cancelled with a "GAB" inside a lozenge of dots.
First stamps
On 31 July 1886 Gabon issued its first stamps, which were surchargeOverprint
An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...
s on the existing stock, to cover shortages of the most-used values. The overprint consisted of "GAB" in dots, plus the new value. Additional surcharges in 1888 were just the numeral, while in 1889 the postage due
Postage due
Postage due is the term used for mail sent with insufficient postage. A postage due stamp is a stamp added to an underpaid piece of mail to indicate the extra postage due.- Background :...
stamps were overprinted "GABON / TIMBRE" in addition to the new value, to indicate their validity as regular stamps. Also in 1889 15c and 25c stamps were locally typeset; they were inscribed "Gabon-Congo / POSTES" in one corner, the value in the opposite corner, and a diagonal "Republique Française" across the middle. All of these early issues were produced in small numbers, and not often seen.
French colonial stamps
From 1891 to 1904, Gabon was administered as part of the French CongoFrench Congo
The French Congo was a French colony which at one time comprised the present-day area of the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and the Central African Republic...
, but in connection with a grant of partial autonomy, it issued its own stamps in 1904. These were the stamps of the Navigation and Commerce Issue
Navigation and Commerce issue
The Navigation and Commerce issue is a definitive series of French postage stamps issued for the colonial territories of France. It was designed by Louis-Eugène Mouchon....
used by all the French colonies, and included 17 values ranging from 1c to 5fr.
This was followed in 1910 by a set using designs specific to Gabon; a Fang warrior, a view of Libreville, and a Fang woman, all printed in two colors. A first version included "CONGO FRANÇAIS" along with "GABON" in the inscription, but was soon supplanted by a redesign saying "AFRIQUE EQUATORIALE" instead.
As with many other colonies, leftover stamps of the Navigation & Commerce issue were surcharged "5" and "10" in 1912.
From 1924 on, the 1910-series stamps were overprinted "AFRIQUE EQUATORIALE FRANÇAISE", and from 1927 some of these were additionally surcharged with new values.
A new definitive series came out in 1932, comprising 24 values using three designs; a timber raft on the Ogooué River
Ogooué River
The Ogooué , some 1,200 km long, is the principal river of Gabon in west central Africa. Its watershed drains nearly the entire country of Gabon, with some tributaries reaching into the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea....
, a portrait of de Brazza, and a view of the village of Setta Kemma. This series was only briefly in use, since Gabon was absorbed into French Equatorial Africa
French Equatorial Africa
French Equatorial Africa or the AEF was the federation of French colonial possessions in Middle Africa, extending northwards from the Congo River to the Sahara Desert.-History:...
and used its stamps thereafter.
Independence
Although the Republic was proclaimed in November 1958, the people continued to use the stamps of French Equatorial Africa, and the first issue of the Republic came on its 1st anniversary, 28 November 1959, with two values depicting different views of Prime Minister Léon M'baLéon M'ba
Gabriel Léon M'ba was the first Prime Minister and President of Gabon. A member of the Fang ethnic group, M'ba was born into a relatively privileged village family. After studying at a seminary, he held a number of small jobs before entering the colonial administration as a customs agent...
.
During the 1960s, issues followed a pattern generally common to France and the former French colonies; multicolored engraved stamps in an oblong format, either horizontal or vertical. Some were conscious imitations of French designs, such as the small-format coat of arms stamps that began appearing in 1969 and continuing into the 1980s (long after France itself had stopped using the design). The 1970s saw the gradual appearance of stamps designed primarily to appeal to American and European collectors, such as an issue featuring motorcycles in 1978, and Nobel laureates in 1995, but these have been the exception rather than the rule. In 1965 Gabon issued one of the first gold foil stamps, one honoring Albert Schweitzer.
Sources
- Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
- Encyclopaedia of Postal History
- Rossiter, StuartStuart RossiterPercival "Stuart" Bryce Rossiter was a renowned British philatelist and postal historian who wrote extensively about British postal history and postage stamps of British colonies in Africa and was actively involved in numerous philatelic institutions...
& John Flower. The Stamp Atlas. London: Macdonald, 1986. ISBN 0356108627