Stamp Collecting

Stamps -> Europe -> Ireland

When postage stamps were first issued in 1840, Ireland was still a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Ireland used the stamps created by Britain until the Irish government took power in Ireland in 1922. Then they printed Irish text over the British stamps until the first original designs of Ireland stamps were issued in December. These first stamps shows a map of Ireland, excluding Northern Ireland, which was still part of the UK.

These first Ireland stamps were designed for everyday mailing. The first commemorative stamps from Ireland appeared in 1929, and are now released many times in a year featuring a wide variety of scenes from Irish life. Irish anniversaries and events, culture, and famous Irish citizens often grace these commemorative stamps. Irish stamps are released in miniature sheet, common sheet, coil and booklet form. The Irish Post Office, known as Oifig an Phoist, issued all Ireland stamps until 1984. Then another part of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, known as An Post, took over the issuance of stamps and all other postal services.

When purchasing Ireland stamps, online auctions like eBay are a great place to find new items for your collection. You can often find stamps in lots cheaper than you could buy them at a specialty store or from a private collector. And while the monetary value of most stamps continues to fall, the different designs and the history represented by the stamps themselves can make them just as valuable to a collector as their price tag.

To distinguish which period Ireland stamps were from when purchasing, look carefully at the postmark. During the period when Ireland used Great Britain stamps, 1840 to 1922, if the stamp’s postmark is from an Irish town, the stamp is known as a Great Britain Used in Ireland stamp. To further distinguish, the Penny Black (Great Britain’s first stamp) and other stamps issued from 1840 to 1844, were postmarked with the Maltese Cross. After 1844, the postmark used words or numbers to identify the town where the stamp was canceled. For those looking for stamps from certain Irish towns, those still affixed to the envelope are more clearly identifiable because the entire postmark is intact.

Most countries’ “forerunners” are the stamps that are issued before a region issues a stamp of its own. It’s a term commonly used among stamp collectors. But Ireland’s forerunners aren’t true Ireland stamps at all, and weren’t designed for postage. They were usually just union propaganda and nationalist sentiment printed into stamp form.

For collectors, overprints provide a challenge as it’s often difficult to tell when the stamp was used and from where it was canceled. Some Ireland stamps were released in small numbers and are more valuable to collectors, and the early stamps, both definitive and commemorative, are always in high demand. First day covers, particularly those with commemorative sets, are fairly valuable because they were created in such low numbers. Stamps from the 70s onward are abundant, but good for creating a comprehensive collection.

Originally posted 2008-10-17 05:00:36. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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