Here are several pages, a study, of postage stamps examples from the 19th Century colonial period. Among the examples you will find Indochina. (find the example and click on it- you will get a picture taken at that location-each stamp will have a picture or an appropriate image eventually) Note that many of the colonial stamps maintain the same design of the colonizing nation. The visitor may find several things interesting about this collection. The artifacts are the actual stamps (and one envelope) They are assembled in approximate geographic order. Each example has been image mapped to allow identification upon mouse-over. And finally all of the pages represent the entire globe from 1840 to 1900. (there were no stamps prior to about 1840) I'm using the presentation of this study as a preparation for building a unique and accurate Operation Starlite coordinates map, but more about that later. Good luck and enjoy the voyage. mtm

Baden-1851-1 to 28 Pre Stamp Envelope June 1848-Germany Bavaria-1844-1 to 58 Bergdorf-1861- 1 to 5 Bremin-1855- 1 to 15 Brunswick-1852- 1 to 26 Hamberg-1859- 1 to 26 Lubeck-1859-1 to 14 Michlenberg-Scherwin-1856-1 to 8 Prussia-1850-1 to 28 Saxony-1850-1 to 20 Schleswig-Holsten-1850-1 to 63 Turin-1852-1 to 63 Wertemburg-1851- 1 to 72 Hanover 1850- 1 to 29 North German Confederation-1868- 1 to 26 Germany-1872-1 to 51 Switzerland-1843- 1 to 97 Great Britian-1840- 1 to 124 -The Penny Black France-1849- 1 to 108 Norway-1855- 1 to 153 Sweden-1855-1 to 55 Denmark-1851- 1 to 52 Iceland- 1873- 1 to 30 Netherlands-1852- 1 to 56 Belgium-1849- 1 to 75 Luxemburg-182- 1 to 74 Austria- 1850- 1 to 85 Hungary-1871- 1 to 46 Russia- 1866- 1 to 76 Parma-1852- 1 to 16 Romagina-1859- 1 to 9 Sardinia-1851- 1 to 15 Italy 1862- 1 to 74 Tuscany-1851- 1 to 23 Two Sicilies-1860- 1 to 27

Some of these pages were added to the site without the mouse-over identifier- in place of the identifier you will see 'country' or worse an error. Check back later and all of the identifiers will be correctly installed. Aside from presenting interesting material, learning the image map skill opens other areas of web expression, that offer a spring board for endless historical links, foot notes, scans etc.

The process of collecting a 19th Century(1800-1900) "Round Robin": Philately or stamp collecting, has deep and interesting geopolitical roots and is worth some reading. If one wishes to begin such an assembly as this, the examples and the details I provide will help the beginner know the appropriate number range* of stamps issued from a given country or colony prior to 1900. An attempt to print these pages produces only vague outlines with little detail- but if the collector will write in the mouse over details on the sheets- it will be a good guide when talking with a dealer or other collector selling on Ebay for example. Take care not to pursue mint items they can be very expensive. Note my example of the Penny Black of Great Britain. This famous old stamp was the very first postage stamp produced. The condition of the example is poor to very poor but was acceptable for the collection I pursued. It will take a long while, some travel and searching to finish this assembly. You should never have to pay more than a few cents to a few dollars U.S. for any stamp if you observe these rules.(any stamp number in the number range is okay and condition is not important) (the resulting collection will be nearly worthless except for the knowldege, pursuit and disciplines gained from the hunt.) Remember for the sake of this process, you are only buying one stamp in the number range, not all of them, . Enjoy and good hunting! "19th Century Round Robin" is the copyrighted name for this type of collection. mtm

*Postal Stamps are formally identified by a number. The number indictes a specific identity in the various stamp catalogs used by collectors. Any nation, colony, occupying nation post office, issues will begin with a #1, being the first stamp issued. The number corresponds to a date or year as with the first U.S. Stamp issued July 1847. (very expensive by the way)

*You may wish to find a copy of The Stamp Collectors Encyclopaedia by R.J.Sutton., Crown Publishers, New York.

Eurasia and Asia