Pre-Union Interprovincials

I recently picked up the following stamp :



Before South Africa became South Africa it was split into 4 large areas each with their own stamps. Natal, Transvaal, Orange Free State and Cape of Good Hope. In 1910 these four joined to become the Union of South Africa. Stamps other than the first stamp of the union were not available until 1913 so it was authorised that pre-union stamps be used throughout the union.

We call these interprovincials. Any Pre-Union stamp with a date after 1910 is worth hanging onto but even more interesting are the ones which were used in other provinces rather than the their initial intended use.


The stamp above - Natal, Postmarked December 1911, used in Cala in the Eastern Cape (Cape Colony).

Anyone else have any to show - I will be looking out for these in future to expand my South African collection.

Drew

These are always interesting to me when I read about them, in the same vein as the KGV stamps postmarked in Basutoland, for example.

The problem for me in all such cases is that I'm only passingly familiar with anything other than the largest post offices, so I have to look up each individual postmark to verify its location.

That's fine when I'm sitting at home, but not practical when sitting at a dealer's booth. I wish I could recognize them quickly (though I realize that I haven't put in the time to be able to expect to do that...).

Drew: thanks for that piece of postal history. It was new for me. By the way, your site just gets better and better every day.

Here are a few more : (not mine)

Cape of Good Hope on Transvaal stamps.





I agree Cjd - I do look out for any dates that are post 1910 now but still need to study the place names.

Thank you for the kind words cynical - the site has grown somethin!

There are also Union of South Africa used in South West Africa to look out for - easy ones to spot are Windhoek and Swakopmund postmarks.

recently bought these - not interprovincials but Union of South Africa used in South West Africa.

Nice little collection. The converted cancels are interesting. I didn't realize they were still being used as late as the end of 1919. Do you know when they stopped being used?

For that matter, the bottom left looks like 1916...do you know when they started being used?

From wikipedia ...