a good reference:
| Up a level | Not my site, but a good reference: |
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| GB | Ceylon | Hong Kong | India | Jamaica | Natal | OFS | Australia and states |
| Up a level | by Dave Elsmore. | ||||||
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| Other Africa | Sarawak | Sudan | Transvaal | Uganda | New South Wales | Western Australia | Other Australia |
I have brought these prices up to date and added currency selection. CheckList Setup |
Steve Hiscocks wrote:
These are amongst the more common of the British Commonwealth telegraph stamps and were in use from 1879 to 1905. Used copies are
normally cancelled with a box slightly smaller than the 1/- stamp and with bevelled corners. This is horizontally divided into three with the date in the
centre portion, Jamaica Telegraphs in two lines above, and the place of use below. An additional 'CANCELLED' is sometimes found. All those I have
seen are in black. Copies are also found postally used although this use was not in fact authorized as was that of fiscal stamps. Various specimens,
proofs, etc., appear on the market from time to time.
According to atlantic-Cable.com, from 1870-73 cables for the West India & Panama Telegraph Co. were laid accordingly:
Santiago de Cuba Holland Bay, Jamaica Colon, Panama
Jamaica San Juan, Puerto Rico St. Thomas St. Kitts Antigua
Guadeloupe Dominica Martinique St. Lucia St. Vincent Barbados.
St. Vincent Grenada Trinidad British Guiana.
A list of 1906 for wireless-Telegraph stations lists nothing for Jamaica.
A similar list for 1910 shows Kingston having one installation, belonging to the West India Cable Co.
The map below show the early cable connections to Jamaica. Holland Bay had an overland connection to Kingston. I have no information about the route used.
In most countries, overland telegraphs are laid by the side of the railway. Though Jamaica had a rail system from early days, it went nowhere near Holland Bay.
It is likely that it therefore followed existing roads/trackways.
1879 - De La Rue, Typographed on white or bluish paper. Perf. 14
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| Type-1 | Type-2 |
Hiscocks added the following 2 notes:
| Note 1. The date of No. 4 is not certain but the changes from Crown and CA to multiple Crown and CA in stamps produced by de la Rue for the Crown Agents (the 'CA' of the watermarks) mostly took place in 1904 or 1905. |
| Note 2. It is not clear when the use of these stamps ceased but it seems likely that it was not long after the issue of No. 4 since that stamp is rare and the issue of stamps of King Edward VII was well under way by 1904 in those countries where the continued use of telegraph stamps was intended. |
My note: I have 5 examples of the 3d stamp. They are all watermarked Crown CA sideways-inverted.
A used example and a couple of later postage stamps with telegraphic cancels.
Port Royal and Half-Way-Tree (a little north of Kingston) on 3d stamps.
Port Morant and Kingston on Shilling stamps.
Use of mixed Telegraph and Postage stamps used postally:
It would seem that the distinction between Telegraph stamps and Postage stamps was not rigidly enforced.
The following are from 1/- Telegraph forms (cancels dated August 1892).
Images courtesy of Richard Ross.
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| Port Antonio | Old Harbour |
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| Morant Bay | Kingston |
The Official forms are different, being darker and not apparently needing space for extra stamps.
Last updated 4th. September. 2023
©Copyright Steve Panting 2012/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23 except where stated.
Permission is hereby granted to copy material for which the copyright is owned by myself, on condition that any data is not altered and this website is given credit.
