West Africa Study Circle
The first stamp of the then colony is the sixpence, which went on sale in Freetown by 21 September 1859, sixpence being the rate for a ½oz letter between Sierra Leone and Great Britain. The stamp was engraved by Ferdinand Joubert using the portrait head of Queen Victoria of the 1855 Great Britain fourpence, but with a new diadem. It was printed by Thomas De La Rue by order of the Crown Agents acting on behalf of the Colonial Government. The Sierra Leone sixpence was the first stamp in West Africa (in Africa second only to those of the Cape of Good Hope in 1853), with the earliest recorded date of its use on cover being 21 November 1860 (Figs. 2 and 3).
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Figure 2 Block of six with left wing margin and marginal inscriptions at top. Believed to be the largest remaining multiple from the first printing. |
Figure 3 Mourning cover from Sierra Leone per SS Athenian to Leicester, part of Captain Jones's correspondence, franked with a single dull purple on blued paper tied by B31 (Walton Type 035.11) obliterator, and marked red accountancy mark "5" for the 5d credit to the British GPO. The earliest recorded date of use of a Sierra Leone adhesive on cover. |