The early issues from 1853 had the monarch's head, white and featureless, embossed on a coloured background. The most valuable stamps from this period are Gibbons

Stanley Gibbons Ltd

The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange and which specialises in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in Jersey but with offices in London, Ringwood in Hampshire and...

 catalogue nos 8 and 9 from the 1853 issue: the 100 reis lilacs.

The first pictorial issue in 1894 commemorated the 500th anniversary of Henry the Navigator's birth. Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...

's voyage to India in 1497-1498 was the subject of an 1898 issue. The Vasco da Gama designs were also used in the African colonies and were inscribed Africa instead of Portugal. This was the only general issue for colonies.

The 1910 definitives were overprinted Republica after the revolution and the first republican issue was the familiar Ceres type of 1912.

Aeroplanes were first depicted in 1923 following the Gago Coutinho

Gago Coutinho

Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho, GCTE, GCC, generally known simply as Gago Coutinho was a Portuguese aviation pioneer who, together with Sacadura Cabral , was the first to cross the South Atlantic Ocean by air, from March to June 1922 , from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro.The Fairey IIIB seaplane used by...

–Sacadura Cabral

Sacadura Cabral

Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral, GCTE , known simply as Sacadura Cabral , was a Portuguese aviation pioneer who in 1922, together with Gago Coutinho , conducted the first flight across the South Atlantic Ocean, and also the first using astronomical navigation only, from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de...

 flight from Portugal to Brazil in 1922. In 1924, the first literary issue commemorated the birth of epic poet Luís de Camões

Luís de Camões

Luís Vaz de Camões is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas...

 in 1524.

The common Caravel type first appeared in 1943, the Medieval Knight in 1953 and Portugal's first railway stamp

Railway stamp

In philately a railway stamp is a stamp issued to pay the cost of the conveyance of a letter or parcel by rail.A wide variety of railway stamps have been issued by different countries and by private and state railways...

 in 1956.

Volumes increased from the 1960s.

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