Postage stamps and postal history of Indochina

Vinh Long

.

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Indochina.

First stamps

The

Saigon).^[1]

On January 21, 1888, stamps crudely

Annam & Tonkin), along with a "1" or "5", and also on the generic colonies stamps, were issued for those territories. The example at right was cancelled at Hanoi (spelled "HA-NOI") in Tonkin, on 17 March 1888.^[2]

The 1889 unification of colonial administration first resulted in

Vinh Long, a town of the Mekong Delta, on 4 April 1889, just a few months after the stamp was issued.^[3]

First regular stamps

In 1892 the first five regular stamps of Indochina were issued as part of the standard

Navigation and Commerce

, and inscribed INDO-CHINE. Three succeeding ones were issued in 1900, and two in 1902 - all in the same basic design with different colors.

Inscription of INDO-CHINE in the typical blank box at the bottom was replaced with printing of INDO-CHINE FRANCAISE from the definite stamps issued in 1904.

Subsequent issues included an attractive and artistic set featuring native women (1907), a

piasters

in the previous year, and a reprinted set valued in the new currency, starting with a 1/10-cent denomination.

Sets featuring local sights appeared in 1927, 1931, and in 1936 depicting cultural views like a farmer plowing the ground or constructions, Apsara, and native emperors of Annam and Cambodie. They are followed by a variety of commemoratives honoring notable figures, up to a last airmail issue June 13, 1949, which was issued in only small numbers due to the growing rebellion.

A number of the 1940s issues were later overprinted and used by the Viet Minh