Page 34 - Delcampe Collections classiques EN-007

Stamps

der to be recognised, the envelopes
would bear a vignette rather than a
postage stamp. To ensure no errors
were made by officials unaware of
the authorisation granted, the Post-
master General ordered that all mail
«franked» in this way should be de-
livered to the main office in Port of
Spain and cancelled with the official
stamp showing the day and time of
departure. A circular was sent to all
postal offices advising them of this in
advance».
Thus, almost unwittingly, as the Di-
rector humorously wrote in his report,
the vignette issued by the local Red
Cross Society was recognised as a
postage-free stamp, with a postage
value of ½ d., on 18 September 1914
when it received the circular cancella-
tion «G.P.D. Port-of-Spain Trinidad, Sp
5 - Sheet of 24 vignettes consisting of a plate block of 6 18-14 3pm». This is why, when new,
vignettes repeated 4 times.
it deserved to be considered by die-
hard philatelists not as a «vignette»,
but as an authentic postage stamp.
In response to these questions, I
found a letter that left Trinidad for
France on 3 December 1914, thus
sent after 18 September 1914.
In subsequent years, the Trinidad
Post Office issued two further Red
Cross stamps of the «Britannia» type,
overprinting the 1 penny red stamp
of the current issue with a Red Cross
edged in black and the date: the
first «21.10.15.» (6) and the second
«19.10.16.». (7).

Letter franked with the Trinidad & Tobago 1 penny red «Britan-
nia» stamp, and with the Red Cross surcharge vignette.

34 Delcampe Magazine