Postage Stamps and Postal History of Vietnam - Advent of Vietnamese Stamps

Advent of Vietnamese Stamps

Stamps in Vietnam were first introduced by the French colonial administration in 1862. The stamps of these decades were initially of the general French colonial series. In the 1880s, some of these were overprinted locally for Cochinchina (1886–88), Annam and Tonkin (1888) and French Indochina (1889). Subsequently, definitive stamps of French Indochina were issued. The colony of French Indochina consisted of present-day Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Stamps specifically for Vietnam were first issued in 1945.

During the Japanese occupation of French Indochina (1940-1945), the colonial administration did not receive fresh supplies of stamps from France. For this reason they resorted to printing their own stamps at a print shop in Hanoi. These stamps were of lower quality than the pre-war stamps, and in addition, the machinery used for this purpose gradually deteriorated, with limited possibilities of repairing it.

The advent of stamps specifically for Vietnam came with the defeat of Japan in 1945. In Vietnam, the Japanese surrender paved the way for the anti-Japanese Viet Minh movement, which presided over a guerilla army, to seize key cities and political power in Vietnam. During 1945-1946, the Viet Minh government issued a large number of provisional postage stamps. These stamps were manufactured by adding an overprint to remaining stocks of the war-era stamps of French Indochina. Eventually, a set of definitive stamps depicting Ho Chi Minh were issued in 1946.

The ensuing conflict between the returning French troops and the Viet Minh government brought an end to the initial series of Viet Minh stamps. During the conflict, stamps were issued in various Viet Minh held regions, while new issues of French Indochina stamps were used in areas controlled by the French. Around 1950, national governments for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were established, each issuing stamps and coins in their own names. The first stamps of the Bảo Đại government in Vietnam were issued in 1951. These stamps supplanted the French Indochina stamps in the French controlled areas of Vietnam.

With the peace agreement in 1954, Vietnam was partitioned into a Northern and a Southern state. Each issued their own stamps.