The French post offices in Zanzibar were post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

s operated 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...

 in Zanzibar

Zanzibar

Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...

 from 1894 to 1904, when the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 took direct control of what had previously been a protectorate. Early issues were French stamps overprinted in the local currency. In 1902 French stamps of the 1900 series were issued with "Zanzibar" as a part of the design, but still overprinted in local currency. Many of the stamps, especially those of 1897 created by printing on stamp margins, are very rare and expensive.

See also

• Postage stamps and postal history of Tanzania
  Postage stamps and postal history of Tanzania
  right|framed|10-cent flag, 1965.right|thumb|1-shilling stamp of 1965, used at [[Shinyanga]] probably in 1968. Note that the postmark still gives "Tanganyika" as country name.right|thumb|5-shilling stamp of 1980 depicting [[lion]] and cubs, used in 1985.The story of the postage stamps and postal...
  
  
• Postage stamps and postal history of Zanzibar
  Postage stamps and postal history of Zanzibar
  This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Zanzibar.Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two...
  
  

Sources

• Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
• Encyclopaedia of Postal History
• Rossiter, Stuart
  Stuart Rossiter
  Percival "Stuart" Bryce Rossiter was a renowned British philatelist and postal historian who wrote extensively about British postal history and postage stamps of British colonies in Africa and was actively involved in numerous philatelic institutions...
  
  & John Flower. The Stamp Atlas. London: Macdonald, 1986. ISBN 0356108627