Welcome to a description of Gold Coast Queen Victoria postage stamps and postal history, concentrating on the period between 1875 and 1901. It reflects my personal collecting, research and publications (1980 to 2015) and I hope readers enjoy the content. I was initially drawn by the attractive design of early Gold Coast stamps and the beauty and variety of dated cancellations. These town and village cancellations named unfamiliar and exotic places with interesting history. My interest in the cancellations later led to exploration of Gold Coast postal history, shown through covers and postcards.
As a collector, there were challenges to find material to study and information to help guide research. Other than stamp catalogues, only two books on Gold Coast stamps were available to me in 1980 (Poole, 1910; Spowart, 1929). I soon joined the West Africa Study Circle and its friendly members gave me much encouragement.
After 35 years of fun, my Gold Coast research and collecting led to competitive exhibits, contributions to two books and many published articles.
My Exhibit, “Gold Coast Victorian Stamps and Postal History”, was shown in the Traditional Philately Class at the 2006 International Philatelic Exhibit in Washington, DC. My objective was to illustrate Gold Coast stamps, postal stationery and postal history. An Index (see below) supplements the original Title Page.
At an international level, my exhibit qualified only to a limit of five display frames (80 pages).
Several viewers commented that it was difficult to assess.
The main exhibition judge asked me why the display included so many covers… so perhaps my design was too complex, confusing and in some pages, crowded!
As well as the Index below, the Title Page gives an overview:
Mostly, postage stamp material is arranged chronologically and by value of issued stamps. The postal history in Part II is chronological and by the postal rates. Part III mostly traces the mail routes within Gold Coast, illustrating examples of the postal markings, concluding with military mails.