New Book – “Registration Envelopes used in Bechuanaland”
06 / 09 / 2024
SACS member and Bechuanaland specialist, Peter Thy, has a new book out entitled “Registration Envelopes Used in the Bechuanalands and Botswana. Philatelic Exhibits”. (Krone Publications, 2024). This soft bound book comprising 202 pages in full colour is available from Amazon.com for USD $35, plus shipping and applicable taxes.
The first postal stationery in British Bechuanaland was issued only a year after the Warren military expedition and the annexation by the British Crown of southern Bechuanaland. In 1886, when the story begins, British Bechuanaland was a frontier colony with a small, but expanding white population, located at a few small rural centers.
Even though the colony only existed for ten years, postal authorities managed to overprint 29 different collectible registration envelopes. The reason for this is two-fold. First, it reflects a competition between the Cape Colony and the Colonial Office in London to establish their influence in the newborn colony. Second, a small but expanding population made it difficult to forecast stationery needs. These factors resulted in frequent overprinting and surcharging of both Cape and British stationery.
The northern part of Bechuanaland was proclaimed a British protectorate in 1885. Three years later, a postal service was organized northward from British Bechuanaland through
the Protectorate to Mashonaland. It took several more years, until 1892, before postal stationery was widely introduced in the Protectorate in the form of un-overprinted British Bechuanaland stationery. In 1893, responsibility for the postal services of both territories was transferred to the Cape Colony. Two years later British Bechuanaland was annexed to the Cape Colony. The remaining stock of stationery was used in the Protectorate until exhausted.
It took about five years before new issues were required and ordered from London. The very small need for stationery resulted in printings so small that it is difficult to understand today and poses constant challenges to the collector who will have to accept that many issues will never cross his/her path, neither in mint nor in used condition.
Bechuanaland Protectorate became independent in 1966 as the Republic of Botswana.
This monograph is the fourth and final part of a series detailing the author’s Bechuanaland and Botswana postal stationery collections. The first covered the postal orders (2021), the second the postcards and newspaper wrappers (2023), and the third the aerogrammes (2023). This, the final and fourth volume, addresses the registration envelopes in addition to providing some historical background.
The first three volumes of the series were published by Exhibitors Press, while the final volume is published by Krone Publications. All volumes can be ordered from Amazon.com and located by searching for ‘Bechuanaland’.
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