The First Cancelled Stamps

In the 1890s there were few pieces of mail posted, mostly by foreigners. The French missions were active, as were a few foreign traders. The only two genuine cancellations on used stamps (or covers) which are fairly commonly found are the the post offices in Harar and Entotto. Harar is the famously exclusive Muslim city in the East of the country; Entotto later became the North-East area of Menelik’s new capital Addis Ababa, and the location of several of the first foreign embassies to Ethiopia, including Great Britain, Russia and the United States of America.

This page shows examples of each of the first stamp issue with early cancellation and date stamps.