Revenue Stamps of South Africa 1902 - 1930

Brian Trotter, The Royal Philatelic Society London

20 November 2003

The Display

The display very briefly shows some examples of items depicting the development, and also the use of the colonial stamps. Only a few sheets are included so only a small impression of these stamps is given. This is followed by the use of these stamps right across the new Union of South Africa.

Then comes the development and usage of the first Union of South Africa stamps. The display concludes with the various stamps overprinted for special uses, and for use in the neighbouring territories.

Background

South Africa in 1902, the Anglo-Boer War had just been concluded, and Britain found itself with two new colonies, the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. First and foremost on the philatelic front was the need to develop new stamps for the two new colonies. This was undertaken promptly, even before hostilities ceased. However, the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 had brought all that to a halt, as then the whole British Empire needed new stamps, not just the two new colonies.

Cape of Good Hope

The then current Cape revenue stamps were a relatively new series that did not depict Queen Victoria, but the figure of 'Hope', with values going from ½d to £20. In theory new stamps were not needed, but the Cape authorities decided that they did need new revenue stamps that bore the image of King Edward VII. To keep costs down, it was originally decided to make a new head plate, but utilize the same duty plates as the Hope Standing series, and a design was developed accordingly. This did change as stamp design proceeded, and finally new duty plates were needed too. The Cape then had plates prepared for all the same denominations as the Hope standing series.

The Cape decided to keep the same colour scheme used for the denominations as the previous series, so there was no need for colour trials and approvals. The stocks of the Hope standing series were considerable, so that some of the Edwardian plates were never used to print stamps, as there was sufficient of the earlier series denomination to last for the duration of King Edward's reign. One example is the £5 revenue stamp. In fact the £10 revenue stamp from the 1878 issue was still in stock too, and so no Hope standing or Edwardian £10 revenue stamps were ever printed.

Stamps of the Hope standing series and the Edwardian series were both used concurrently through the Edwardian period, and beyond.

Natal

Natal took a different approach to their new stamps, also having values from ½d to £20 printed, but all were dual purpose postage and revenue stamps. The £10 and £20 were really intended for revenue use, as postage rates would not ever need the top values. The stamps to 4s were the smaller (or postage) size, while the stamps from 5s upwards were in the larger (or revenue) size.

This situation remained until 1908, when it was decided to introduce postage only and revenue only stamps from 6d upwards. Denominations below 6d remained as dual purpose postage and revenue stamps. The reason for the change was the problem in dividing the income from stamp sales between the Treasury and the Post Office. A formula approach for dividing income was considered still to be acceptable for the lower values.

After some concern regarding the possible cleaning and re-use of the high value revenue stamps, further changes were made in 1909. The 1908 printings had the smaller head printing made with doubly fugitive ink, while the larger frame printing was done in singly fugitive ink. In order to reduce the risk of re-use, it was decided to reverse the colours. The higher values were still in stock, so they were not printed in reversed colours in 1909. Since Natal became part of the Union of South Africa in 1910, these higher values were never printed in the reverse colours.

Another problem arose with the revenue only stamps of 1908, as the colour combinations of the 6d and the 10s were too similar, and caused confusion, so the 10s was printed on yellow paper from 1909.

The Orange River Colony

The Orange River Colony decided to have revenue stamps from 6d to £5, and later £10, and, like the Cape, a separate set of postage stamps. However, since the revenue series was to only start at 6d, the plan was to have the 1d denomination as a dual purpose postage and revenue stamp. The colour trials for the smaller postage size stamps were all done with the 1d dual purpose stamp.

However, when it came to printing, the Lieutenant Governor of the Colony decided that all the postage size stamps should be postage only, so a new die was made for the 1d denomination. This left the Colony with a problem, as the most frequently used revenue stamp was the 1d, for receipts and cheques, and the revenue stamp series only started at 6d. As a result, special legislation was passed in the Colony allowing the use of the 1d postage stamp for revenue purposes.

There was a lot of communication and numerous changes in the depiction of the springbok on the stamp design. Firstly it was too large relative to the gnu (wildebeest), then it's proportions were wrong, and the Colonial authorities suggested that the De La Rue engraver visit the zoo, and finally sent a book with an illustration that needed to be copied.

In 1905 five additional denominations of revenue stamp were added. These included the £10 and a 6s stamp. In 1906 the Colony requested a change in colour of the 2s stamp, feeling the colours were too similar to the 6d stamp. De La Rue offered eight new colour alternatives, but the Crown Agents were not satisfied with any of them, and requested a green stamp with a bright red centre. De La Rue obliged, and the Crown Agents approved the new 2s colours, only to realize after the stamp was issued that these new colours were the same as those of the 6s stamp produced the previous year. So, yet another colour for the 2s had to be selected.

The Transvaal

The Transvaal decided to have dual purpose postage and revenue stamps up the value of 2s, and separate revenue stamps from 2s6d up to the value of £25. However, within six months of the stamps being issued, the Transvaal decided to make separate postage and separate revenue stamps for values 1s and above, again due to the need to determine whether it was Post Office or Treasury income.

The only subsequent change was for the smaller dual purpose postage and revenue stamps, which had the four lowest denominations changed to single colours from 1905 to allow cheaper single plate printing.

The Transvaal Edwardian revenue stamps did have the most spectacular error of all the South African revenue stamps, namely the inverted head or centre on the 2s6d and 5s denominations.

The Interprovincial Period

After the formation of the Union of South Africa on 31 May 1910, the stamps of the four former colonies became valid for use across the whole country. The stocks of the four former colonies were centralized in Pretoria, and on receiving a request from any part of the country, the Distributor of Stamps dispatched whatever stamps of the appropriate denomination that were at hand. So, the former colonial stamps were widely distributed.

As the first Union stamps were not issued until more than three years later, more of the colonial revenue stamps were ordered from De La Rue to cover the shortfall. Only Cape and Transvaal stamps were ordered during the Union period.

In 1911 the concept of Penalty Stamps was introduced. This was to denote the payment of the appropriate penalty for any late payment of stamp duty. Cape colonial stamps (and one Transvaal denomination) were overprinted 'Penalty' for this purpose.
Shortly before the Union stamps were to be issued on 1 September 1913, the Distributor of Stamps found that he was running short of the 3d, 6d and £1 denominations, and asked for, and received, permission from the Secretary of Finance to supply these denominations prior to the official issue date, if required. A few are known used before the issue date.

The colonial revenue stamps were withdrawn and demonetized on 1 April 1914, just seven months after the issue of the first South African revenue stamps.

Colonial Stamps

Examples of Cape design proposals, Natal, Orange River and Transvaal revenue stamps. The Transvaal stamp has the inverted head variety. Also die proofs of the Orange River Colony and Natal.

Tender for Printing Union Revenue Stamps

Before even sending out a tender for the new Union revenue stamps the South African Government contacted De La Rue asking about the different colours available in fugitive inks. De La Rue submitted an Appendix sheet with 15 colour examples in May 1911.

Then in June 1911 De La Rue submitted a total of 22 Appendix sheets with different combinations of inks. These were made up from three master Appendix sheets, one with stamps printed in singly fugitive inks, another using a combination of singly fugitive and doubly fugitive inks, and the third using doubly fugitive and spirit sensitive inks. The other 19 Appendix sheets showed the results of attempts to clean off cancellations on stamps as shown in the three master Appendix sheets, using various methods.

De La Rue succeeded in winning the tender.

Dual Purpose Postage and Revenue Stamps

The South African Government chose to have the ½d and 1d stamps as dual purpose stamps, with a series of revenue stamps starting from 3d, and going to £25. The springbok head watermark was chosen for the stamp paper. In 1920, an additional dual purpose stamp was added, this was the 1½d. It is not clear why this stamp was made a dual purpose rather than a postage only stamp, as no stamp duty existed for this amount. It must be assumed that it was planned to raise the receipt duty from 1d to 1½d, but this never happened.

Revenue Stamps

Designs were submitted and accepted, dies and plates produced, colour trials done, and eventually the stamps officially issued on 1 September 1913. These remained in use for the multitude of stamp duties and fees until 1930, when they were replaced by a similar smaller format series of revenue stamps printed locally.

The first series of revenue stamps were, from time to time, overprinted for special purposes. These included the overprinting for Penalty stamps to pay the penalty for late payment of stamp duty; overprinting for Consular use, to pay the fees for visas to enter South Africa; and Fee for Additional Stock, which was used to pay the fee for grazing additional stock on Crown Land.

A particularly interesting overprint usage was for the calibration of weight and measuring equipment, where the stamps were overprinted Excise and rouletted down the centre. When the official calibration had been done by the inspection authorities, the stamp was separated down the centre along the roulette, one half of the stamp being placed on the certificate of calibration that the owner of the equipment would keep as evidence that the equipment had been calibrated. The other half was placed on the equivalent certificate that was kept in the Government files.

Union Stamps

Plate proof for the £10, die proof and revenue stamp, and revenue stamps overprinted for Penalty use, and for use in the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Also two Transvaal Customs Duty labels.

Overprinted for use in Neighbouring Territories

The Colonial and the Union stamps were overprinted for use in the neighbouring territories of Basutoland, the Bechuanaland Protectorate and Swaziland. These territories did not have their own stamps produced until 1933, and before that relied on Colonial or Union stamps either used unoverprinted or more usually overprinted for use in the respective territory.

After the South African Armed Forces had defeated the German army in the German colony of South West Africa in 1915, South African stamps were used there too. In 1922, after the League of Nations mandate gave South Africa the responsibility to administer the former German colony, South African stamps were overprinted for use in the territory.

Customs Duty Stamps

The South African Customs Union which came into effect in 1906, included a customs duty to be paid on business literature, such as price lists and catalogues, that was sent into the South African colonies by post. This created difficulties for both the businesses sending literature, and the Post Office in collecting the customs duty. This was resolved by permitting the businesses to prepay the customs duty using stamps. These were sometimes cancelled in manuscript, or using a rubber handstamp. The Transvaal and Natal provided special customs duty labels, on which the stamps were affixed. If these had not been cancelled, the Post Office cancelled them on arrival with a post office datestamp to prevent re-use.

The Cape of Good Hope, and eventually all the colonial stamps after the formation of the Union of South Africa, were overprinted 'Customs Duty', as were the first issue of South African stamps. The stamps used were either dual purpose stamps, or postage stamps. The only revenue stamp used was the Orange River Colony 6d.

A problem remained for the Post Office when the customs duty was not prepaid by the sender. Various means were used to collect the customs duty, including the use of postage due stamps.

Conclusion

This period of South African philatelic activity provides a fascinating collecting scope. There are a wide variety of attractive stamps, development of the stamp duties in four countries, and then the consolidation of these into a single system. It offers a wide variety of overprints and the inevitable set of overprint errors for study. Generally, material is relatively freely available, allowing for opportunity for collection and study.

Much the same is true for the postage stamps and postal stationery of the period.