Countries that issued stamps before coins

Hello all,

I was just looking at this thread on NCLT and thinking that stamps are more valuable as economic objects than NCLT since they are actually used to pay for a service. In addition, many dealers, in the past, were accepting stamps for small payments since they could use them to send letters and packages to their customers.

So, I thought of a little game: to list all countries or "issuers" who had their own stamps before they got coins. I suspect they are mostly British colonies and dominions. I know many of them but will just do Canada (leaving aside bank tokens and other such "semi-regal" issues):

Canada: stamps 1851 / coins 1858
Nova Scotia: stamps 1851 / coins 1861
New Brunswick: stamps 1851 / coins 1861
Newfoundland: stamps 1857 / coins 1865
British Columbia and Vancouver Island: stamps 1860 / coins ----
Prince Edward Island: stamps 1861 / coins 1873

Heaps in my neck of the woods as the Pacific was only really colonised at the end of the 1800s. All of these places used mostly British currency before their own.

New Zealand, Stamps 1855 - Coins 1933 (Used British coins before 1933)

Australia, Stamps 1850 - 1860 (Each state used its own stamps to 1913, NSW and Victoria 1850, South Australia 1856, WA 1854, Van Diemens Land (Tasmania 1853)
Queensland 1860) Coins 1910, Commonwealth of Australia stamps 1913 (But first "Australia" Postage Dues 1903). Sydney started minting British gold in 1855.

Fiji, Stamps 1870, Coins 1934 (Used British and NZ coins) Fijian coins circulated with NZ ones around the Pacific as well.

Tonga, Stamps 1886, Coins 1962/7 (Platinum Koula coinage 1962, circulation coins 1967)

Western Samoa/Samoa, Stamps 1877, Coins 1967 (Used a mix of coins to 1900, the German Mark to 1914 and British/ NZ coins to 1967

Papua New Guinea, Stamps 1901 (Papua), 1885 (German part), First coins 1894 in German part but not until 1935 in Southern Part (Papua)
This is an interesting place, the eastern half was divided between Germany (Northern, capital at Rabaul) and Britain (Southern, capital at Moresby) in 1884. The first stamps in German part were 1885 ovpts and 1900 own issues. The British started with the Lakatoi stamps in 1901.
In 1915, the German part was annexed to Britain and in 1915 also Australian stamps were used with overprints on them saying "NW Pacific Islands". In 1921 New Guinea issues were revived and Papua got its own stamps at the same time. Between 1935 and 1945 a small coinage from Penny to Shilling was issued (All holed). Between 1945 and 1974, the Australian Pound and then Dollar was used. Both Papua (South) and New Guinea (North) were joined in 1952 and used unified stamps.

In 1975 Papua New Guinea became independent and used its first own coins in 1975 the Kina made up of 100 Toea.

Cook Islands - Stamps 1892, Coins 1972 (Although NZ issued a special Cook islands dollar in 1970). Free association with NZ after 1965, used British (To 1933) and NZ coinage until 1972.

Niue - Stamps 1902, Coins 1987 (Only ever had NCLT issues, everyday coinage is NZ dollar) Issues a lot of garbagey Wallpaper coins

Tokelau - Stamps 1948, Coins - 1978 NCLT coins only, standard coins are NZ dollar although apparently the Samoan Tala is used too.

Tuvalu and Kiribati - Stamps as Gilbert and Ellice Islands 1911, Coins - Tuvalu 1979, Kiribati 1980. This colony was made up of Kiribati (Gilbert Islands, Micronesians) and Tuvalu (Ellice Islands, Polynesians) and was separated in 1976 as Gilbert Islands and Ellice Islands. In 1977 the name Kiribati was used for the north and 1979 Tuvalu for south, now two separate countries.

Solomon Islands - Stamps 1907, Coins 1977 - Used British/ Australian and Fijian coins until about 1966. In 1966 used the Australian Dollar, became independent in 1975 and the Solomon Islands dollar currency introduced in 1977.

Vanuatu - Stamps 1908 as New Hebrides, British and French, Coins 1965 for French Pacific Franc, Vanuatu independent 1980, did not get own Vatu coins until 1983.
This place was jointly ruled by France and Britain from a 1906 treaty of condominium, hilariously used stamps issued by both administrations.
Currency 1908 - 1937 was the French Franc and British Pound at rate 1Franc = 9.6 pence, so we have stamps of 5/- = 6f25c and 5c = ½d etc.
In 1938 Introduced the Gold Franc for both sides
In 1976 the Gold Franc was reduced by power of 100, 100 Hebrides Francs = 1 Gold Franc
1983 Hebrides Franc becomes Vatu

Hope this helps

Great addition, Moneytane. Beside Canada, I actually thought of New Zealand first when I came up with this idea, but I didn't realize there would be so many "issuers" in your part of the world which are in the same situation.

Italian Somaliland got stamps in 1903 and coins in 1909.

The Union of South Africa got stamps in 1910 and coins in 1923.

It depends on how you define country.
Republic of Lithuania: stamps in 1918, coins in 1925.

Thanks for the great additions!

In North America, Saint-Pierre et Miquelon got their first stamps in 1885 and their only coins in 1948.

Yes, I live in the part of the world that is very much a frontier until the 1900s.

Hong Kong - Stamps 1862, Coins 1863 (Just 1 year)

Indonesia (Independent not Dutch era) - Stamps 1945 coins 1951

Jamaica - Stamps 1860, Coins 1868

Singapore (Independent Singapore, not Straits settlement) Stamps 1948 Coins 1967 (Used Malayan and Straits Settlement earlier on)

Mauritius - Coins 1877 (British, although Unofficial issues of 25 and 50 sous in 1822), Stamps 1847

Italian Somaliland got stamps in 1903 and coins in 1909.