GERMAN COLONIES
TOGO
My STAMPS
1888 / 1891
Togo became a German Protectorate from 5th Jul 1884 with the German post Office starting from 1st Mar 1888.
Togo was located on the western coast of Africa and occupied a thin 50Km wide strip of the "Slave Coast". The area expands into the hinterland for about 560Km and is 175Km wide from north to south at its widest part. As the area was so small it was difficult to defend militarily and so was forced to surrender to British and French troops on 26th Aug 1914.
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 "Togo"), 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.
MICHEL V37 and V39 to V44
FORERUNNERS (V)
The German Post Office in Togo used regular German Empire issue stamps V37 (internal service "Numeral in oval") and Michel 39 to 44, so-called ("Pfenning").
