Northern Rhodesia & Zambia Postmarks

Northern Rhodesia & Zambia Postmarks

This section is very much a ‘living’ publication and is a work-in-progress. Regular updates and additions will take place.

Introduction and Purpose:

First and foremost, it is an update of the main postmark listing from Hal Hoyte’s North of the Zambesi. Further updates of the rest of the book will follow when ready. This means that at this stage there are no descriptions of the offices or their locations, but illustrations of all the main postmark types found used in the territory, and a list of the letters used to identify sub-types, are included. This follows Hal’s original book with one alteration, Postage Paid types for Zambia have been changed to the normal type they most closely resemble, with a P prefix, and there are also obviously new types for later Zambian marks. For now, there are no extra illustrations shown for individual postmarks to aid differentiation of similar types, these will be added later. Where types are very similar, in consultation with other collectors, a decision in a few cases has been made to list them together. In general people found Hal’s method of angular measurement difficult in practice, so where possible other differences are included in the description. This mainly applies to the type 13 and 32 marks for the major towns. For example, Hal in his provisional lists identified 35 different type 32’s for Lusaka, but looking at his collection and many other examples, this seems a definite overestimate. In this list, this has been cut down to five, two examples that are distinctive, and the rest divided into three groups.

Earliest and latest recorded dates recorded are given for all the marks, and although dates
outside these are bound to be discovered, they give a reasonable idea of the period they
were in use. Scarcity ratings are given for the main types throughout, varieties are not given separate ratings. The scarcity ratings for the Zambia postmarks are much more conservative as the amount of material seen is much less. Forgeries are listed in italics where seen, others undoubtedly exist. The most famous are probably the so-called ‘Madam Joseph’ forgeries which can look quite convincing, but as they have a fixed date are normally identifiable.

The listing of machine cancels has been expanded to include all the datestamp/slogan
combinations that have been seen along with the dates of use. These seem very limited in
some cases, meaning some combinations are probably pretty scarce, but there is not
enough information at this stage to give any ratings. Errors of date and inverted datestamps etc. are very common on these and have not been listed separately.

Any new information will always be welcome.

Tony Banks & Adam Goulding

 

1. Types of Postmarks – Key to the Listings

• Northern Rhodesia Postmark Types – Main 
• Machine Postmark Types
• Postage Paid Postmark Types – Northern Rhodesia & Zambia 
• Northern Rhodesia Postmark Sub-Types
• Zambia Postmark Types

2. Listings of Postmarks

• Northern Rhodesia Postmarks – Abercorn to Zimba
• Northern Rhodesia Machine Postmarks – Broken Hill to Ridgeway

3. Rare and Interesting Northern Rhodesia Postmarks on Cover

4.