This is a list of entities that have issued postage stamps at some point since stamps were introduced in 1840. The list includes any kind of governmental entity or officially approved organisation that has issued distinctive types of stamp . These include post offices in foreign countries and postal services organised by military occupations, international organisations, colonies, provinces, city-states and some revolutionary movements. The list includes members of the Universal Postal Union that are also listed at postal organisations.
Many of these entities are historic and some were very short-lived indeed. Philatelists and stamp collectors often refer to the entities that no longer issue stamps as dead countries.
The dates are the generally agreed-upon dates of first and last stamp issues. "Date of issue" is taken to mean the date when a particular type or variation was issued but its usage would often continue for many years. For example, although an entity may have issued its last stamp in 1951, actual usage may have continued until 1960: in that case, 1951 is the last stamp issue date.
Besides the period of which stamps were issued in the name of a particular entity, the list under that entity also bears any other name in which stamps had been issued for territory, name of any other entity which had had its stamps used in that territory, or new names which had subsequently replaced the name of that entity, together with their respective periods.
List
The list has been comprehensively revised to include extra entities and to direct the links away from the country articles to the (proposed) philatelic articles.
Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands 1878 –
Falkland Islands Dependencies
Falkland Islands Dependencies 1946 –
Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands (British Occupation during WWII) Faroe Islands 1975 –
Fiji
Fiji 1870 –
Finland
Finland 1856 –
Åland Islands 1984 –
Finnish Post Abroad
Aunus (Finnish Occupation) 1919 only
Eastern Karelia (Finnish Occupation) 1941–1944
Karjala 1922 (only)