When France was invaded in the second World War, the nazis made Philippe Pétain head of state.
The German invaders chose him, as he was a french general, who earned his merits in the first WW.
Working with the nazi regime, and thus facilitating it's cruelties, divided the French.
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| General and Marchal Ph. Pétain |
Most stamps issued in that period, therefore bare the image of Pétain.
Also in the colonies, people were divided. Some colonies used the stamps, as they recognized Petains position, others supported General De Gaule, who led the Free French from the south of France.
Lots of the issued stamps of 1941, and the later issued overprints of 1944, never came to sale in the colonies.
All series consist of 2 stamps, baring the face of Pétain in the top corner.
The images are local views off the colonies, so they are actually no 'common designs', but they are part of one serie, and the overprint of 1944 is identical on all stamps.
This issue was prepared for :
- French Equatorial Africa
- French Guinea
As many of these issues never made it to the post offices, they will not be found postally used.
The overprint in 1944, was to fund the works in the colonies, also here, most of the issues were never brought to sale.
Each set has two type of overprints:
on the lowest value, there was a surcharge, the higher value had an overprint with a new value and a supplemental surcharge.
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| type I : surcharge |
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| type II : overprint and surcharge |
If you want the set complete, you can look for the emission of French India, where the face value on both stamps is missing.
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| error French India - without face value |
I also made an album with all of the above issues: it can be downloaded here .
At the end of the war, Pétain was found guilty of collaboration, and although sentenced to death, due to his age, he was imprisoned in 1944.
He died in 1951. Uptil now, he is both admired as despised by the French, and a perfect example of the 'hero-to-zero' story.
Good luck in compiling the full set.
