Postage Stamps and Postal History of Malta - Early Days To 1922

Early Days To 1922

A postal system began in Malta in the early 18th century with letters from the Knights of Malta to Rome and other parts of Europe. Napoleon set up a rudimentary system using an ink stamp simply marked (Malte), but the actual post office did not begin until 1854. By then it was a British colony and the British set up an overseas post office in Malta. British, and rarely French, Tunisian, Italian, Egyptian and even Indian stamps were used and they were cancelled with the "A25" obliterator, of which there were seven types. So any British stamp with an A25 cancel was used in Malta or Gozo. 1847 was when the General Post Office in Valletta was set up and it was in the Auberge de Castile a 16th-century building; it would remain there until 1990, when new purpose-built quarters of MaltaPost were set up in Marsa, to the west of Valletta. On December 1, 1860, Malta issued its first stamp, when the country was still a colony of the United Kingdom. This stamp was a halfpenny yellow and was re-issued 29 times in different perforations and shades until 1885, when Malta's first individual set was released. This stamp was legal for Maltese inland postage only and the standard rate for island mail under one ounce until 1943, overseas mail had to use British stamps until 1885.

January 1, 1885 saw the release of Maltese definitives in the values up to 1/-. The colours reflected Malta joining the Universal Postal Union and the halfpenny was the same as the 1860 stamp except it was green. The stamps were generic designs of Victoria like most British colonies, but also used the Maltese cross as a heraldic device. British stamps were no longer valid from this date except for postage in British military zones and mail, where British stamps were until 1979. A 5-shilling value complemented the set in 1886 and this was used until 1911. There was an additional of four values in 1899 which included a 2/6 and 10/- value being issued, both survived into the 1920s and a 1919 reprint of the 10/- is now Malta's rarest stamp, being worth at least €3000 for a mint example, and €4000 for a used stamp.

1901 saw the addition of a farthing stamp for newspapers with a view of Grand Harbour. The overseas empire rate dropped to 1 penny in 1902 and the 2½d stamps were overprinted with the words "One Penny". Each sheet had one error stamp with the words "One Pnney" on them and as it was a sheet of 120 stamps, these values attract a premium. However, it is thought that this was a deliberate error. 1903 saw the introduction of new low-value definitives to 1/- featuring Edward VII; again apart from Maltese crosses these stamps had little relevance with Malta. 1904 and 1905 saw watermark changes, the 4½ and 5d values had colour changes in 1905 and 1911, and the penny and halfpenny were also changed from two colour to one-colour stamps. 1911 saw all the remaining values changed to one colour and 4d and 1/- had a colour change. The 5/- value was introduced that looked like the lower values but was two-coloured. 1914 saw the start of the George V stamps, but these were similar to earlier issues and they were not fully issued until 1920 because World War I intervened. The 3d value only arrived in 1920, so the 3d War stamp of 1919 was a 1903 Edward overprinted. The 1901 farthing stamp was replaced by an overprinted George V 2d stamp in 1921. There were independence riots in 1919 and 1920 that led to self-government in 1922.