Postal history and postage stamps of Morocco
The postal history of Morocco is very complex due to the political development of the country in the 20th century. Until the division of Morocco into a French and a Spanish protectorate and the international zone of Tangier , the sultanate maintained a national post office that temporarily competed with private courier services. International mail was sent via the international post offices of major European powers established from 1857. After the partition of Morocco in 1912, France and Spain set up their own postal services in their respective protectorate zones. Even after Morocco gained independence in 1956, it took more than a year for both parts of the country to be reunited by post. Today, the Moroccan postal service also extends to Ifni , which was relinquished by Spain in 1969, and Western Sahara, which has been occupied since 1976/79 .
The post office in the Sultanate of Morocco until 1912
Private messenger services
From 1891 numerous private courier services operated in Morocco, most of which also issued postage stamps . The stamps had values in French or Spanish currency, which were widespread in Morocco at the time and had the same value due to the Latin Monetary Union .
A courier service acquired a license for a post line between two cities, in some cases several companies operated one after the other on certain lines. All remaining licenses were canceled in 1909, and the Scherifische Post took over the domestic mail service between 1910 and 1912.
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Post line between cities |
Remarks | image |
| Demnat - Marrakech | Charles Firbach's postal service, October 1906 to January 1907 | |
| Ksar el Kebir - Ouezzane | On this line there was a service of the French Galuntuomini and Sirfati from February 1896 to January 1897 and a Spanish service of Joseph Cohen from November 1896 to May 1897 |
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| Fez - Meknes | Messaoud Bensimon's postal service, from January 1897 to May 1901, both postage and postage stamps were issued | |
| Fez - Sefrou | Established September 1894, operated by Abudarham until December 1901 | |
| Mazagan - Asimmur - Marrakech | Marcel Bensimon (also Messoud Bensimon ) postal service , March 1897 to July 1901 | |
| Mazagan - Marrakech | Postal service of the French entrepreneur Isaac Brudo from September 1891. The Brudo company was founded on July 16, 1900 by the French. Bought state post and used up the stamps by July 15, 1902. From 1897 a private messenger service existed on this route, which was organized jointly by the Italian Vice Consul and the head of the British Post Office in Morocco. |
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| Mogador - Agadir | Spanish company run by David El Maleh, postal service from September 1899 to December 1900 |
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| Mogador - Marrakech | Founded April 1893 by the German company Marx & Co., operated until January 1911 |
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| Safi - Marrakech | French company run by Isaac Brudo and Joseph André, June 1898 to January 1901 |
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| Tangier - Arzila | Founded December 1895 by Aaron Cohen, discontinued December 1898 | |
| Tangier - Ksar el Kebir | Founded August 1898 by the Spanish company Joseph S. Pariente and operated until December 1900 | |
| Tangier - Fez | July 1892 by the French Company Charles Gautsch et Cie. founded, the company was sold to the French Sold State Post, which continued the service and used up Gautsch's stamps by April 1, 1893 | |
| Tangier - Larache | Founded February 1898 by the British entrepreneur James Nahon and closed at the end of the same year | |
| Tangier - Tetuan | Portuguese company owned by Salvador Hassan, from September 1896 to June 1898 | |
| Tetuan - Chefchaouen | Founded by Josué Benchimol in March 1896, taken over by a Spanish company the following year and operated until May 1898 |
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| Tetuan - Ksar el Kebir | February 1897 by the French Entrepreneur Si Allal Abdi founded and closed in December 1898 |
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Sherifical Mail
The Sherifian post was on 22 November 1892 by Sultan Moulay al-Hassan I. founded. Until 1909 it was in competition with the private messenger lines and was only responsible for domestic traffic. At first, the post office did not use postage stamps, but instead collected the postage in cash. Letters were stamped with negative stamps in black, which documented the place of posting and prepayment of postage. At the end of 1911, the postal service was reorganized with the help of French advisors, and postage stamps were introduced in 1912. The stamps show values in Moroccan rials divided into 500 mouzounat.
After the establishment of the French and Spanish protectorates over Morocco, the service continued until 1915, as the city post office in Tangier even until 1919.
Foreign post offices in Morocco
Morocco was not a member of the Universal Postal Union until 1920 . Shipments abroad therefore had to be posted in post offices in European countries. Between 1857 and 1957, four countries temporarily had foreign post offices in the major cities of Morocco.
British Post
The first British postal agency opened in Tangier in 1857. Post agencies in Fez, Larache, Mazagan, Mogador, Rabat, Safi and Tetuan followed until the end of the 19th century . These agencies were subordinate to the British Post Office in Gibraltar and used brands from the metropolitan UK. Until 1872 the letters were only collected and brought to Gibraltar, where they were stamped with the oval bar stamp A26 of the Gibraltar post office and forwarded. From 1872 the use of a local stamp in Tangier is documented, which was mostly only struck off on the envelope. Further processing and cancellation of the stamp with the A26 stamp continued in Gibraltar until the end of the 1870s. Only then were mail addressed abroad fully processed in Morocco before being forwarded via Gibraltar. From 1886 the British Post issued stamps for Gibraltar, which were also used in Morocco.
The first stamps specifically for the agencies in Morocco were produced in 1888 by printing the words Morocco Agencies on stamps from Gibraltar. The first overprints were made by the Gibraltar Chronicle , later editions received overprints in London showing small deviations.
In 1907 the agencies in Morocco were taken over directly by the British Post . The imprint "Morocco Agencies" now appeared on stamps from Great Britain, in addition the value was changed by imprinting it into the Spanish peseta, which was then used in Morocco . After the partition of Morocco in 1912, the British Post issued stamps with the imprint "Morocco Agencies" in three different currencies:
- Sterling stamps for all postal agencies, in use until 1957;
- Stamps in Spanish peseta for Spanish Morocco , in use until 1956;
- Stamps in French francs for French Morocco, these issues were discontinued as early as 1938.
In addition, British stamps without any imprint were used for packages from 1937.
The last British post office in Tetuan was closed on April 30, 1957.
French Post
The first French postal agency in Morocco opened in Tangier in 1862. Postage stamps of the French Post were used for franking, which were canceled either with the dot-rhombus stamp with the number 4018 or with the local date stamp Tanger . The postal agencies received special postage stamps in 1891, which show overprints with a value in Spanish currency on French original stamps. Until the transformation of the international post offices into post offices of the French protectorate of Morocco, or the closure of the French post offices in the Spanish zone in 1917, a total of 37 different postage stamps and 16 postage stamps were issued.
Spanish Post
Spanish postal agencies opened in Morocco from 1867. Spanish postage stamps were used until 1903, which can be recognized by the local postmarks of Arzila, Casablanca , Larache, Mazagan, Mogador, Rabat , Safi, Tanger and Tetuan. From 1903, Spanish postage stamps with the imprint CORREO ESPAÑOL / MARRUECOS were introduced for the agencies in Morocco. In 1909 a series of brands consisting of nine values was produced by printing a rubber hand stamp TETUAN, which was only sold in this place. The last series before the division of Morocco appeared between 1910 and 1913, again with the original overprint from 1903.
In the course of 1914 the Spanish postal agencies in the French zone were closed, starting from the agencies in the Spanish zone, the postal service for Spanish-Morocco was established from 1912 onwards.
German postal service
On December 20, 1899, the first German post office in Morocco was opened in the city of Tangier, which soon after became a post office. Other postal agencies, which were originally operated by business people and consular officials, but were largely replaced by postal officials by 1914, were set up in Asimmur, Casablanca, Fès, Fès-Mellah, Marrakech, Mazagan, Meknes, Mogador, Rabat and Safi (French zone from 1912) , as well as in Alkassar , Arzila, Larache and Tetutan (from 1912 in the Spanish zone). Originally it was planned to use Reichspostmarken only with the imprint MAROCCO in German currency; Corresponding stamps had already been overprinted, but did not get to the post office counters due to conversion difficulties with the peseta circulating in Morocco . Instead, the stamps of the Deutsche Reichspost also received a value imprint in Spanish currency.
The mail traffic from Morocco to Germany took place either via Spain or from the places on the Atlantic coast directly by ship to Hamburg .
The German post offices in the French zone were closed at the outbreak of the First World War in early August 1914. In the Spanish zone, the post offices remained open until June 12, 1919, the main post office in Tangier until September 19, 1919.
Morocco under European rule
On March 30, 1912, the Sultan of Morocco recognized France's protectorate through the Treaty of Fez . France and Spain signed an agreement on November 27, 1912, through which the territory was further divided. Most of it came under French control as French Morocco , an area on the Mediterranean coast and Cape Juby on the border with Western Sahara formed the protectorate of Spanish Morocco and the city of Tangier and its surrounding area had been administered by the diplomatic corps since 1892 and remained neutral formal sovereignty of the Sultan of Morocco. It was not until December 18, 1923 that the Tangier International Zone was made binding by agreement. Independent postal services under French and Spanish control emerged in the protectorates, while in Tangier the post offices continued to be operated directly by the state postal services of France, Spain and Great Britain.
French protectorate
France began building a nationwide postal service in 1914, making use of the existing postal agencies and some private courier services bought in the 1890s.
The first series of stamps from 1914 to 1921 was provisionally produced by imprinting Protectorat français on French original stamps. From 1917, the Post introduced editions specially printed for Morocco, which showed landscapes and local sights. Postage stamps were sold in Spanish currency until 1917, then in French currency until 1921. The introduction of the Moroccan Franc in 1921 cannot be seen on postage stamps as it was linked 1: 1 to the French Franc. The country name MAROC appeared in Latin and Arabic script, and from 1917 onwards there were no references to Morocco's political status as a protectorate. The intricate RF (for R épublique F rançaise) found on contemporary postage stamps from France and its colonies is also missing on Moroccan stamps.
On October 1, 1920, French Morocco joined the Universal Postal Union, which enabled the French-Moroccan Post to process international mail.
During World War II, Moroccan postage stamps played a role in Allied war propaganda. In order to simulate an imminent German occupation of Morocco, the imprint Deutsche Reichspost in Morocco was affixed to two postage stamps of the Protectorate in Great Britain and passed them on to the Vichy government .
Spanish protectorate
Spanish Morocco
From 1914, the postal administration of the Spanish Protectorate set up a postal service in the part of Morocco on the Mediterranean coast assigned to Spain . The first post offices emerged from the already existing foreign post offices of the pre-colonial period. The establishment of the postal service suffered a setback during the Rif War from 1921 to 1926 , as most of the towns had been occupied by insurgents and Spanish administrative facilities had been destroyed.
The postage stamps of the Protectorate mostly show landscape scenes; the country is Marruecos Protectorado Español . The value was given in Spanish currency.
Cape Juby
Cape Juby forms a narrow strip between the French protectorate and the Spanish Sahara with the main town of Tarfaya . It was not until 1916 that Spain occupied the area assigned to them in 1912 and began to build up the postal system. The first stamps appeared in 1916. These are stamps from Río de Oro with the inscription CABO JUBI . From 1919 to 1929, Cabo Juby was printed on Spanish stamps, then on Spanish Morocco stamps . Mail was carried to or from Tarfaya via the Canary Islands . In 1948, Cape Juby became part of the Spanish Sahara postal service and sales of its own stamps were discontinued.
Tangier
After Tangier was excluded from the protectorates by the Franco-Spanish treaty of November 27, 1912 and declared a neutral zone, nothing changed at first in the postal system. Both the foreign post offices of the German Empire, France, Great Britain and Spain, as well as the Scherifische Post remained. It was not until 1919 that the German and Scherifische post offices were closed.
In 1918, the French Post issued special stamps for the post office in Tangier in French currency with the city's name printed on them for the first time. In addition to 12 postage stamps, some postage stamps and postal order stamps with the imprint TANGER were also issued in the following period . From October 1924 the French Moroccan postage stamps were used in the French post office; the only exception was a special series of 10 airmail stamps that appeared on February 1, 1929 and again shows the imprint TANGER.
The Spanish post office used the stamps of Spanish Morocco until 1923, after which the post office received original Spanish stamps with the imprint CORREO ESPAÑOL / MARRUECOS. Other stamps with such overprints or CORREO ESPAÑOL / TANGER or simply TANGER appeared until 1940. Spanish troops occupied Tangier during the Second World War and the post office used stamps from Spanish Morocco from June 14, 1940 to 1947. In response to international protest, Spain evacuated Tangier in 1947 and its pre-war status as an International Zone was restored. Between 1948 and 1956, the only postage stamps specially created for Tangier came to the post office counters, showing street scenes, contemporary means of transport and faces of Moroccans. In the Spanish post office stamps of the motherland Spain were also valid, but they were not sold there.
Until 1927 the British Post used stamps from the mother country with the imprint "Morocco Agencies". On May 1, 1927, stamps from Great Britain with TANGIER printed on them came to the post office counters for the first time . In the following years, many of the stamps published in Great Britain bearing this imprint were also sold in Tangier. In addition to these overprint stamps, normal British stamps were also valid in Tangier from 1937, the overprint stamps were also allowed to be used in Great Britain from 1950 and remained valid there until the decimal currency was introduced in 1971.
The British Post Office in Tangier was closed on April 30, 1957.
Morocco after independence
On March 2, 1956, Morocco was granted independence by France and on April 7, 1956, the northern zone of the Spanish protectorate came back under Moroccan control. The internationally administered Tangier was reintegrated into the Moroccan state on January 1, 1957.
Due to the currency differences between the former Spanish Morocco and the former French Morocco, the new Moroccan Post issued postage stamps in Spanish currency until the end of 1957, which were only valid in the former Spanish northern zone and Tangier. The southern part of the country used postage stamps with the inscription "Royaume du Maroc" in franc currency. From 1958 the franc was valid in all of Morocco and the first stamps for the whole country appeared on the occasion of the world exhibition in Brussels .
After the Ifni War , Cape Juby was reintegrated into the Moroccan state in 1958. The Moroccan postal service was extended to the formerly Spanish Ifni in 1969 and to the northern half of Western Sahara in 1975. The Moroccan Post Office has been responsible for the entire Western Sahara within the Moroccan Wall since 1979 .
Postage stamps bore values in Moroccan francs until 1960 , after which the franc became the sub-unit of the Moroccan dirham until it was replaced by the santim in 1974.
literature
- Ullrich Häger: Large encyclopedia of philately . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh, 1973. ISBN 3-570-03229-9
Keywords: Morocco , p. 280, Scherifische Post , p. 418; Spanish-Morocco , p. 438; Tangier , p. 464 - James McKay: The Complete Guide to Stamps and Stamp Collecting. Hermes House, London, 2005, pp. 175-176. ISBN 1-84477-726-X
- David A. Stotter, History Society, British Philatelic Trust: The British Post Office Service in Morocco 1907-57. 367 pp. Postal History Society, 2007. ISBN 978-0-85377-028-2
- Yvert & Tellier: Pays d'Expression Française . Tome 2, 1991. ISBN 2-86814-035-1
- Bob Lamb: Kingdom of Morocco. In: American Philatelist May 2014 issue; from the series of articles / category Worldwide In A Nutshell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on the table from Yvert & Tellier: Catalog de Timbres-Poste 1964. Volume 1, pp. 304–308.
- ↑ [1] Homepage of the Moroccan Post, click on the founding document on the navigation bar Bureaux de Poste and then click on Phototeque .
- ↑ Michel stamp catalog Europe 1957, p. 659, Schwaneberger-Verlag, Munich
- ^ Encyclopaedia of Postal History . Archived from the original on August 4, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2013. Retrieved March 7, 2012
- ↑ StampsWiki with a detailed article on Deutsche Post , accessed on March 7, 2012
- ↑ Article about Deutsche Post in Morocco on a private homepage ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 6, 2012
- ^ UPU page with contribution date
- ^ Ludwig Tröndle: Postage stamp customer . Orbis Verlag, Munich, 1992. p. 295. ISBN 3-572-00595-7
