2016-04-27 Wed

Cowry stamps of Uganda or Uganda Cowries were the first adhesive postage stamps of Uganda. The stamps were typed on the typewriter as there was no printing press in Uganda.

The stamps were made on a typewriter by a Reverend of Church Missionary Society. This is why they were also known as Uganda Missionaries.

The cowry stamps were valid within the kingdom of Buganda. In the case of adjoining kingdoms and provinces, they were only used for the communication between the officials of the Church Missionary Society.

Printed on a very thin paper the stamps only showed the initial of the jurisdiction and a number of denominations.

Due to their simple design, the stamps were forged at a large scale. Only a handful of genuine stamps have survived which are extremely rare.