The philatelic history of Morocco is very rich the stamps used in Morocco varried very much during history and according to geography. We'll try to summary it in order to help you classify the stamps of this country.
The kingdom of Morocco started using stamps around 1891. Different kind of stamps were used at different moments and in different regions. We find local, national and foreign stamps used in Morocco :
Local stamps (1891-1909):
The postage inside Morocco was handled by private societies. Stamps were used between couple of towns. The origin and the destination was written on the stamps (El Ksar El Kebir -> Ouezzan, Fez -> Meknes, Tanger -> Fez, ...).
The cherifian postage administration was created in 1892. It issued its first stamps in 1912 and then 1913. These stamps continued to be used all around Morocco till 1915 and in Tangiers till 1919. The value of stamps was given in Mouzounas and Rials (400 Mouzounas = 1 Rial).
Many French offices were opened in Morocco and used the stamps of France with the value in Centimos or Pesetas overprinted in french and later they used the french colonial stamps with value in Centimos and Pesetas overprinted in french and arabic.
Many German offices were opened in Morocco and first used the stamps of Germany without overprint and then with overprint 'Marocco' and the value in Centimos and Pesetas. These offices worked in the french zone and Tangies until August 4th, 1914 and in the spanish zone until June 12th, 1919.
British offices were opened in Morocco before 1898 and used cancelled stamps of Gibraltar. In 1898 they started using the overprint 'Morocco Agencies' on stamps from Gibraltar and Great Britain. The value was overprinted in Centimos and Pesetas for stamps used in all offices until 1918 and then only on stamps used in the spanish zone.
The stamps used in the french zone had values overprinted in Centimes and Francs. these offices worked in the french zone between 1918 and 1938.
The British post office in Tangiers used British stamps with overprint Tangier and the value in Pence and Shilling (12 Pences = 1 Shilling). The office started using specific stamps in 1927 and was closed in 1957 when Tangiers was returned to Morocco.
All the other offices used stamps with values in Pences and shillings.
The spanish consulates in Morocco had post offices that used ordinary spanish stamps since 1873 and 1915.
In 1903 the spanish stamps in use in Morocco had a new overprint. Other regions in Morocco under spanish control continued to use ordinary spanish stamps (Cebta, Melilia, Heuceima,...) and some others used their own stamps (Ifni, Cap Juby, Rio de Oro, Sahara Espagnol).
After a treaty in 1912, the parts of Morocco then independant were devided into 3 zones: one french in the east and south , one spanish in the north and one International Tangiers.
French, Spanish and British stamps were used in Tangiers with different overprints.
The region of Ifni controlled by Spain used spanish stamps with overprint Territorio de Ifni since 1941 and then issued its own stamps in 1943. This zone was returned to Morocco in 1969 and use its stamps since then.
This zone was composed of all the northern part of Morocco but Tangiers and the territory of Cap Juby in the south. It used specific stamps until February 15th, 1958 date of the end of the spanish protectorat in Morocco.
The French zone fall under French protectorat after the treaty of 1912. The issued stamps in this zone continued to be labeled Maroc until the independance in 1956.
The French zone in Morocco became independant in 1956 and liberated the other zones progressively from foreigh occuption (Spanish zone 1958, Ifni 1969, Sahara 1975). At the begining of the independance stamps were issued in French and spanish currencies, then later in Moroccan currency.
| Contact : Safwan Qasem, July 288h, 2000 |
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