2018-03-24 Sat

An extremely rare stamp of Togo belonging to Colonial Period brought a sum of $100,000.

Togo – a country in West Africa was, once, a German colony. Germans created coastal towns for German travellers, explorers and for the military. The first posts in Togo were established the 1880s by German Traders who operated from the coastal towns.

The first stamps of Togo were un-overprinted stamps of Germany. Further, since the year 1897 mainland German stamps with a "Togo" overprint were made available. In November 1900, the key type stamps known as the Yacht issue were introduced which remained in use until the First World War.

Key type stamps are stamps of a uniform design that were widely used in the colonies in the 19th and 20th centuries. They were used extensively by Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Portugal.

A German Key type stamp of Togo was a bicolour stamp which is also known as the Yacht Issue. These stamps bearing the image of the German Kaiser's yacht, SMY Hohenzollern II were used in all of Germany's overseas colonies.

This Yacht issue of Togo is in White and Red colour with the value of 10 pfennig. The stamp depicts Kaiser’s Yacht in the centre and the name of the country written above the Yacht. The stamp also overprinted with “LOME” which is the capital of TOGO. This stamp brought home a sum of $100.000 in an auction.

Image Curtsey: https://en.wikipedia.org