What Are "Telegraph" Stamps?

Hi,
While I haven't posted on the Forum for awhile, I have been very active in the hobby, working on my collection literally every day.
In the process, I've been working with a number of stamps with "telegrafos" written on them - which I assumes means "telegraph", and I have some questions about them.

- How were they used? Did individual telegraphs require a stamp (applied at the receiving end of course)?

- It seems these stamps are primarily used in Spanish speaking countries (i.e Spain, Cuba, etc). Is this true, and if so, why?

- These stamps are pretty old, out of print well before the "end" of telegraph usage. What happened?

Thanks all!
Mobilman44


*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Imagine you lived in some small remote rural town and a telegram is sent to you. The telegraph wires don't connect to your tiny town so the message is taken down by somebody in a town that has a connection and then the message is sent by mail using a telegraph stamp to pay the postage to the town you live in so you can actually get your telegram message.

I don't know about the US where there were many private telegraph companies but I think that internationally the use was typically rather different.

A message would be written on an official form at the telegraph office, payment would be made with the appropriate stamp(s) added to the form, and finally the message would be sent by wire.

This would be written out again at the receiving office and delivered to the destination address.

In some countries such as India and Ceylon the stamp was cut in two, with one half on the receipt that was given to the sender and the other half kept by the sending telegraph office on the form with the message.

Special telegraph stamps were used in many countries not just Spanish-speaking ones.

Many countries only used special telegraph stamps for a few years. In Great Britain for example, thy were only used until 1881 and after that ordinary postage stamps were used instead.

In many countries the telegraph service was a national service run by the post office so using postage stamps was convenient.

As a matter of fact, if you have ever seen the abbreviation PTT on many a European stamp, that stands for Postal, Telephone and Telegraph.

Peter

Further reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraph_stamp

Let's see what 'ya got! I think telegraph stamps are kinda neat.

Cuba

I collect telegraph stamps of 19th century.
Belgium, France, Germany (including some states), Netherlands, Switzerland issued beautifully engraved telegraph stamps. Country specialized catalogs always list them as back-of-the-book stamps.

Scott doesn't list classic telegraph stamps but Scott is incomplete and illogical in many ways.

Jammu & Kashmir State (on the northern borders of India and Pakistan) went on issuing Telegraph stamps into the 1940s, and they're listed in Gibbons. This is a strip of the 1 Rupee value handstamped, of 1884:



They were also issued in black, for Official Telegraphs. Here is the 1 Anna value:



Later on, they were much better printed, and so much less interesting. Here is a complete 1 Anna, SG T15:

Hi!
Have to say, you folks are pretty darn knowledgeable!

Thank you for your input, it is truly appreciated.

Mobilman44

Spanish telegraph from 1865 (left) and a color proof from the same set on the right.

very nice posts this boards are reach of knowledge

Here is an oldie from Italy. It is printed on pelure paper.

The Italian one posted by bookndrbob is of a very different nature than those shown in the other posts: indeed it was not for paying the cost of sending a telegram but was a seal used on the envelopes in which the telegrams were delivered to the adressees. Its nature is also evidenced by the fact that its shows no value, either in a currency or in "words".
Michele

Thanks Franzjoseph!

Here is some information about this Jammu and Kashmir 1A double J&K Coat of Arms carmine and ultramarine telegraph stamp which can be from either 1897 printing with no watermark (Hiscocks 15) or from 1899 printing with multiple rosettes watermark (Hiscocks 23).

https://goscf.com/t/48261#416351