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When the Hong Kong General Post Office came into operation in 1841, it primarily served Britain’s Chinese Expeditionary Force, then fighting the Chinese in the ‘Opium Wars’. The local community was also served by the new postal service. During the pre-adhesive period between 1841 and 1862, postal markings were applied for cancellation. It was 21 years after the first post office that the first postage stamps were issued.
Definitive stamps
Queen Victoria’s portrait appeared on the first definitive issue of 1862. Crown CC watermark appeared on the second issue printed in the following year, and the third was printed in the 1882 with Crown CA watermark. When the Victorian era ended in 1901, there had been three issues (61 stamps, overprints included) released. Due to repeated reprinting, the colour of these stamps varied and double or inverted overprints or irregular perforations occurred because of printing errors. The more valuable are 96 cents olive-bistre (1856), 4 cents pale green perf. 12.5 (1865), and 2 cents rose perf. 12.
A total of 39 definitive stamps were released between 1903 and 1911 under King Edward VII. These three issues were only slightly different and not particularly rare. They are nicknamed the ‘Bald Issues’ because Edward VII had almost no hair on top.
There were 34 definitive stamps issued under King George V between 1912 and 1937. The portrait showed the King in full beard and were called the ‘Beard Issues’. Like those issued during the Edwardian era, the two issues were almost identical in their design. 27 of them were overprinted with ‘China’ and made available for sale in British post offices in China.
King Edward VIII came to the throne after King George V, but abdicated in less than a year. No definitive stamps were issued in Hong Kong during his short-lived reign.
35 definitives were released under the reign of King George VI between 1938 and 1952. Instead of local stamps, Japanese definitives, in 20 denominations, were used in Hong Kong from December 1941 to August 1945, during Japanese occupation. It was the postmark that determined that they were actually cancelled in Hong Kong. In April 1945, overprints of $1.5, $3 and $5 were added to these Japanese stamps. The most precious stamp issued under King George VI was the 8 cents issued in 1946 with perforation error.
Between 1953 and 1997, 292 definitive stamps depicting Queen Elizabeth II were released in six issues. When a reprint of the fifth issue was made in 1989, the year was added to the stamp at the right hand corner at the bottom, causing much criticism. A set of definitives depicting the water of Hong Kong was issued on January 26, 1997, prior to the handover of Hong Kong to China on July 1 of the same year. Neither the Queen’s portrait nor the royal emblem appeared on the issue and no reference was made to the territory’s sovereignty. The set was used until October 18 1999, when Hongkong Post issued the first set of definitive stamps in the name of Hong Kong, China, on the theme of local landmarks.
Commemoratives and special stamps
Hong Kong has been relatively modest in issuing commemorative and special stamps. Less than 200 issues were released in one and half centuries, and only four during the century between 1841 and 1941. Silver Jubilee Issue (1935), Coronation Issue (1937), 50th Anniversary of Colony (1891), and Centenary of British Occupation (1941), were released in celebration of British colonial rule in Hong Kong.
A Victory Issue was released in 1946 to commemorate the resumption of British rule after Japanese occupation. Only six issues were released in the following 18 years. The number of issues remained on the low side and only one to three issues were released in each decade. It was not until the 1980s that the Post Office set up the Stamp Advisory Committee and a more open policy was adopted. Stamps began to take up local flavour and the element of Chinese culture emerged, possibly because it became clearer that Hong Kong would be handed over to China.
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