Venezuela

Venezuela ( Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela ) is a country on the north coast of South America that gained independence from Spain in 1811. It is governed by a socialist presidential system.

Due to a shortage of stamps, various revenue stamps ( Instruccion or Escuelas ) were used for domestic mail traffic from March 1871 to June 1895.

Their use was prohibited from 1 July 1895. These stamps were produced using the least possible means, were poorly centred and varied greatly in colour. Due to the frequently occurring favour cancellations, the low value and the large remaining stocks, there are very many unused values.

France and Great Britain set up various foreign post offices (consular posts) in Venezuela to facilitate postal traffic with foreign countries. These existed in La Guaira, Ciudad Bolivar and Caracas until Venezuela joined the Universal Postal Union (1 January 1880). The French posts were in Porto Cabello and La Guaira.

There was also a ship mail line operated by the Scottish captain R. Todd, who carried mail between the Venezuelan mainland ports and St Thomas, as stipulated in the contract.