Uses and Postal History: Issues of the Second Republic (Transvaal) 1882-1900 (Philately of Southern Africa)

Tim Bartshe has done it again! Tim, a master exhibitor with at least 14 Grand Award-winning Southern African philatelic exhibits, has prepared another outstanding exhibit. The exhibit contains unique preproduction material, very rare stamp errors, and the postal history of the South African Republic (Transvaal) from the end of the First Anglo-Boer War in 1881 to the end of the Second Boer War in 1902. It reflects over 35 years of study, research, and constant searching for outstanding philatelic material.This exhibit presents the series of government-issued stamps beginning with the holdover issues from the First British Occupation, which ended in 1881. These issues depicting Queen Victoria were used as a stop-gap measure until the older First Republic plates of Otto were resurrected and cleaned to produce a truly independent issue. A new design was developed and ordered from Enscede in Holland. Due to the numerous rate changes soon after independence and the poor timing of ordering from the Dutch printers, provisionals were produced. Stamp stock on hand was employed using multiple smaller values for registration and overseas rates. With that as background, the exhibit displays numerous stamp deployments to accommodate the rates to be paid using all the issues produced.From a bankrupt and foreign-occupied Republic in 1881, this small country was to become the most important gold producer in the world. The postal system made every attempt to be progressive and innovative in handling hundreds of thousands of letters coming into the swelling ranks of the Witwatersrand gold fields. The railway had been linked with the East Coast, Cape Town, and Johannesburg, which had swelled to over 150,000 people, increasing its economic importance in this late 19th-century capitalist-crazed world.As a gold and diamond center of global importance, the economic importance of the ZAR exceeds its apparent philatelic insignificance. The ZAR became a melting pot of fortune hunters and ultimately became the financial heart of the Union of South Africa.The South African Republic ceased to exist with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging when it surrendered to the British Empire after the Boer War in 1902. That was over 115 years ago. Many collectors are not aware of the philatelic history of this area. Fortunately for us, South African Republic philately is alive and an active collecting area. And Tim Bartshe, South African Republic specialist extraordinaire knows more than most about this challenging subject.The exhibit includes the Bakker Express, the Vurtheims and the Shafts and Disselboom Definitive Issues. Read more