JohnnyRockets

27 Jun 2018
10:56:43am

Hi all,

I have four stamps that "MAY" be from South Africa (Transvaal?).

Can anyone assist me with identifying these?

I looked on StampWorld under South Africa and Great Britain, but cannot quite figure out where these are from or even what year.

The pictures are NOT my exact stamps, but I have the same ones in my collection.

--------------------------------------------------

Here they are:









--------------------------------------------------

I will be attempting to find them in my Scott's catalogs over the weekend as I have a four day weekend. I may need all four days to find them!

Thank you all for your great help!


Johnny



(EDIT) These MAY be (in this order):

Transvaal 1896 SG 217 Coat of Arms Wagon and Flags
Transvaal 1885 SG 192 Half Penney Surcharge Going Downwards
Transvaal 1885 Arms SG 183a Second Republic
Transvaal 1885 Arms SG 178 Second Republic


***BUT*** that is up for conjecture...

(EDIT) On each stamp: "Eendragt Maakt Magt" = "Unity Makes Strength"

From Wikipedia:
"On 17 January 1852 the United Kingdom, ruler of the Cape Colony, approved the independence of the South African Republic in the Sand River Convention. "Eendragt maakt magt" was the motto on the new state's shield and in 1888 it decided it should only use high Dutch (not Afrikaans) as its only official language. Rendered in Latin, the motto of the Union of South Africa from 1910 until 1961 was "Ex Unitate Vires" ("Out of Unity, Strength"). After 1961, as the Republic of South Africa, the motto was rendered on coins in both Afrikaans (as "Eendrag maak mag") and in English (as "Unity is Strength").The motto was changed in 2000 to "?ke e: ?xarra ?ke" which is "Unity in Diversity" written in Xam."

From Me:
The "Drie Pence" stamps appears to have a postmark from Pretoria, which is the northern part of Gauteng, South Africa.

Login to Like
this post

JohnnyRockets

27 Jun 2018
10:56:13pm

re: 4 Mystery (Transvaal?) Stamps - help to identify

Hi S,

Yes, me too, but identifying them is another story!

Login to Like
this post

clivel

28 Jun 2018
02:14:04am

re: 4 Mystery (Transvaal?) Stamps - help to identify

The South African Republic (ZAR) was an independent Boer republic that became known as The Transvaal after being annexed by Britain in 1877 prior to the first Boer war. (Transvaal => Other side of the Vaal River).
In 1910 it was incorporated into the newly formed Union of South Africa as the Transvaal province.

After the fall of apartheid in 1994 the provinces were dissolved and the Transvaal was no more. Nine new provinces were formed, the new province of Gauteng which encompass a relatively small part of what was the Transvaal does however incorporate the population heavy centres of Pretoria and Johannesburg.

The stamps of Transvaal are very difficult to collect due to the preponderance of forgeries and reprints so one should be extremely wary of purchasing these stamps unless proven otherwise.
Clive

 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.

re: 4 Mystery (Transvaal?) Stamps - help to identify

You are unlikely to have forgeries. Most of the stuff is "officially authorised" reprints produced for packet material for collectors.

Genuine used stamps ( other than some values ) are not particularly rare, as the Transvaal was one of the most populous provinces of South Africa in the days before metered mail and had a high usage of stamps.

The problem is sorting out the genuine from the reprints.

Malcolm

Login to Like
this post