Postal Orders & Postal Notes.

Postal Orders & Postal Notes are an area of numismatics that is gaining in popularity,especially among collectors in British Commonwealth countries as well as within Great Britain itself.Postal orders were used as
a legal tender emergency currency by the Orange Free State & the South African Republic.Great Britain followed suit by declaring Postal Orders to be legal tender in 1914 during World War I to save on paper &
labour.The same act was repeated during World War II in Great Britain.

Here is a list of the British Commonwealth countries that issued postal orders;

Aden.
Anguilla.
Antigua.
Australia.
Bahamas.
Bangladesh.
Barbados.
Bechuanaland Protectorate.
Bermuda.
Bophuthatswana.
Botswana.
British Army of the Rhine.
British Central Africa Protectorate.
British Consulate Post Offices in Morocco.
British Guiana.
British Honduras.
British North Borneo.
British Solomon Islands.
British Virgin Islands.
Brunei.
Burma.(up to and including the 3rd of January 1948).
Canada.
Cape of Good Hope (Cape Colony).
Ceylon.
Ciskei.
Cyprus.
Dominica.
East Africa.
Falkland Islands.
Fiji.
Gambia.
Ghana.
Gibraltar.
Gilbert & Ellice Islands.
Gold Coast.
Great Britain.
Grenada.
Guyana.
Hong Kong.
India.
The following Indian Princely States had their own Postal Orders;
Gwalior.
Jhind.
& Patiala.
Indian Field Force in Egypt.
Ireland.
Jamaica.
Kenya.
Lagos.
Lesotho.
Malawi.
Malaya.
Malaysia.
Malta.
Mauritius.
Montserrat.
Namibia.
Natal.
New Guinea.
New South Wales.
New Zealand.
Nigeria.
Northern Rhodesia.
Nyasaland.
Orange Free State.
Orange River Colony.
Pakistan.
Papua.
Papua New Guinea.
Pitcairn Islands.
Queensland.
Rhodesia.
Rhodesia & Nyasaland.
St. Helena.
St. Kitts - Nevis.
St. Lucia.
St. Vincent.
Seychelles.
Sierra Leone.
Singapore.
South Africa.
South African Republic.
South Australia.
South West Africa.
Southern Nigeria.
Southern Rhodesia.
Sri Lanka.
Straits Settlements.
Swaziland.
Tanganyika.
Tanzania.
Tasmania.
Tonga.
Transkei.
Transvaal.
Trinidad.
Trinidad & Tobago.
Tristan da Cunha.
Turks & Caicos Islands.
Uganda.
Venda.
Victoria.
Western Australia.
Zambia.
Zimbabwe.

Remainder issues exist for Bophuthatswana,Ciskei,Transkei,& Venda.
These 4 entities (Bantustans) were reincorporated into South Africa,27
April 1994.A remainder issue also exists for Rhodesia,which gained independence as Zimbabwe,17th of April 1980.

If you want to find out which countries still issue British Postal Orders from their local Post Offices,please visit the following website;
www.maltapost.com & type in 'British Postal Order' & click on 'go'.

Further information about postal orders can be seen here;
www.ramadan.co.uk .

You can see a dealer's listing at www.kronestamps.dk .

 

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Please transfer this to the banknote forum.

Aidan.

Done!

 

Here's a link; www.gbos.org.uk/index.php/Overprint_Postal_Orders .

Aidan.

 

Western Samoa also issued British postal orders at their local post offices.One is known to have been issued as late as 1991.

 

A very unusual set of Canadian Specimen overprinted British Postal Orders fetched 7,123 Pounds Sterling on eBay in July 2006.

The closest cousins of the Postal Order was the Old Age Pension & Widow's Pension Orders.These were only issued in Great Britain & the Isle of Man.The British ones were issued between 1909 & 2004.

Aidan.