"French Colonies" is the name used by philatelists to refer to the postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

s issued by France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 for use in the parts of the French colonial empire

French colonial empire

The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...

 that did not have stamps of their own. These were in use from 1859 to 1906, and from 1943 to 1945.

First stamps

The first of these were small square stamps issued in 1859, depicting an eagle and crown in a round frame, with the inscription "COLONIES DE L'EMPIRE FRANCAIS". They were imperforate (as were all Colonies stamps until 1881). A total of six values, 1c to 80c, appeared between 1859 and 1865.

Ceres

The next series appeared in 1871 and 1872, and borrowed the contemporaneous designs of France, with profiles of Ceres and Emperor Napoleon III. While some of the nine values can be distinguished from the French stamps by color or value, others are extremely difficult to identify.

Several of an additional series of Ceres heads issued between 1872 and 1877 have a similar problem, and are distinguishable only by being imperforate, as was the Colonies part of the Peace and Commerce issue of 1877 to 1880.

In 1881, a new series, featuring "Commerce" alone and inscribed "COLONIES", was issued for the Colonies, perforated 14x13.5. The 13 values, ranging from 1c to 1fr, were in colors comparable to those used for France. In 1886 the 25c stamp, previously printed in yellow, was reissued in black on a rose-colored paper

Postage stamp paper

Postage stamp paper is the foundation or substrate of the postage stamp to which the ink for the stamp's design is applied to one side and the adhesive is applied to the other...

. Stocks of the Commerce issue were frequently overprint

Overprint

An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...

ed by the colonies during the 1880s and 1890s.

Navigation & Commerce series

France began issuing stamps printed with the territory name in 1892 as part of the Navigation and Commerce issue

Navigation and Commerce issue

The Navigation and Commerce issue is a definitive series of French postage stamps issued for the colonial territories of France. It was designed by Louis-Eugène Mouchon....

.

A series of common postage due

Postage due

Postage due is the term used for mail sent with insufficient postage. A postage due stamp is a stamp added to an underpaid piece of mail to indicate the extra postage due.- Background :...

 stamps was issued beginning in 1884, with a last one appearing in 1906. Thereafter each colony used only its own stamps.

World War II

The concept was revived by the Free French forces during World War II, who printed eight types of semi-postal stamps in 1943 and 1944. After the Free French landed in Corsica and Southern France, the stamps were used in those areas, and became valid throughout France in November 1944.

Finally, in 1945 a general issue of postage due stamps for the colonies was produced.

Postal stationery

Various items of postal stationery

Postal stationery

A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related service has been prepaid...

, in addition to postage stamps, were also produced for general issue to the French Colonies. A total of three postcard

Postcard

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....

s were issued in 1876, followed by two different cards in 1880 and two in 1885. One reply postcard was issued in 1885. Six different letter cards were issued in 1885 and two in 1890. Two postal stationery envelopes were produced and issued in 1889. Five different values of newspaper wrappers made available to the colonies in 1889.