France Vs. French Colonies

From the note in my Scott catalog I understood that it is very difficult to distinguish between early french stamps, and those of the french colonies. I have several of such stamps in question. Luckily, I have few with SON cancels. Can some one please help me identify those stamps by cancel, or, even better, provide me with an online resource to do that?





There is a noticeable difference between 5c green and 20c blue. Because of the yellow green color I suspect 5c to be French Colonies. Can some one confirm that based on 3036?

3036 is St. Cyr.

I think your first one is 532, which would be Bordeaux.

If the third (20c blue) is 1977, it is Metz.

Cjd

Thank you very much!

The different sizes of letters in repub. franc., and other distinct features, tell me that these two bad girls are from the different issues. I suspect that one is from France and another is from French Colonies. Now, if someone can help me figure out which one is which

The first stamp is a Bordeaux, from 1870.

The Napoleon 5c is from France, not colony, GC 3036

For the 1c, the first is a Bordeaux, the second a colonial one.

Can someone explain why France issued stamps for use in its colonies that were almost, but no exactly the same as those used for domestic use? Were the colonial issues valid w/in France and vice-versa?

The stamps of france was not supposed to be valid in colonies (in some occasions they have been but in the general case it was not supposed to be).

Stamps in the colonies were bought by colonies itselves through Ministry of colonies. Colonies had to pay the stamps before and resell it.

Stamps of France was under unother ministry.

The stamps was almost the same as France, but with no perf because it was costy.

In 1890s new stamps dedicated to each colony was created because they was traffic of stamps between colonies to earn money on money exchange ...

hope that helps you.