Postage Stamps and Postal History of Malta - Postal Stationery

Postal Stationery

The first items of postal stationery to be issued by Malta were in 1885 when postcards, newspaper wrappers and registration envelopes were issued. Post paid envelopes were first issued in 1900 and the only new type of postal stationery to be issued by Malta were aerogrammes which were first issued in 1969. Malta never issued lettercards.

Only three different newspaper wrappers, all with a value of ½d, were produced. One in 1885 with the head of Queen Victoria, one in 1902 with the head of King Edward VII and one in 1913 with the head of King George V. All of them exist overprinted SPECIMEN.

Up to 2002 a total of 48 different registration envelopes have been identified as having been produced, although some varieties exist on some of them. Eight of these also exist overprinted SPECIMEN.

74 postcards have been produced up to 2012, this figure includes reply postcards and commemorative postcards which are also listed as postal cards or occasion cards. 17 of them exist overprinted SPECIMEN.

The post paid envelopes were first issued on 4 May 1900, 4 different envelopes, were the only ones to be produced for the island until 16 September 2002. Since then MaltaPost has issued postage paid envelopes with both local and foreign rates. At least 20 different postpaid envelopes have been issued since 2002.

Six different aerogrammes have been issued up to 1991, but only two were pre-paid, and these were issued in 1971.