GERMAN COLONIES
OST-AFRIKA
STAMPS
1890 / 1891

Forerunners are stamps of the German Empire that were in circulation in foreign countries and the colonies without any special identification (i.e. not overprinted "China"), until issue of their own stamps. 'Proper' forerunners were officially delivered to post offices and were sold from postal counters, stamps that were not used or not officially issued are non-proper forerunners. All forerunners and interim stamps can only be recognised by the cancellation and as such there is no such thing as an unused forerunner.

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MICHEL VZ45
ZANZIBAR FORERUNNER (VZ)

Issued: 27th Aug 1890 to 31st Jul 1891: The German Post Office in Zanzibar used regular issue German Empire stamps of 1889 Michel 45 "Numeral in oval" So-called "Pfennig".