Telegraph stamp

A stamp of Bonelli's Electric Telegraph Co. Ltd, issued around 1862
Colombia, 1886 telegraph stamp
A French telegraph stamp used in 1871
The reverse of a telegram from Eritrea showing British postage stamps (overprinted for use in Eritrea) used to pay the fee
Three 1984 telegraph stamps from Honduras, some of the last telegraph stamps issued anywhere

Telegraph stamps are stamps intended solely for the prepayment of telegraph fees.[1] The customer completed a telegraph form before handing it with payment to the clerk who applied a telegraph stamp and cancelled it to show that payment had been made. If the stamp was an imprinted stamp, it formed part of the message form.[2]

  1. ^ The Stamp Collector's Encyclopaedia by R.J.Sutton & K.W. Anthony, Stanley Paul, London, 1966, p.240. ISBN 0-340-17183-9
  2. ^ Bennett, Russell and Watson, James; Philatelic Terms Illustrated, Stanley Gibbons Publications, London (1978)