West Africa Study Circle

Stamps, postmarks, postal stationery and postal history

The West Africa Study Circle, formed in 1950, is the international specialist society for the study of stamps, postal stationery and postal history of West Africa. It originated from small specialist groups which already existed and has undergone several expansions of scope.

The following philatelic areas are the ones covered in the most depth. The map shows where they are. From there, or from these links, you will find brief introductions to each area:

Ascension / Tristan da Cunha / Gough Is. Cameroons
Gambia Gold Coast / Ghana
Nigeria St Helena
Sierra Leone Togo
Additionally, several other areas are also included: British Postal Agencies on Madeira, Tenerife. St Vincent (Cape Verde Islands) and Fernando Po; airmails and sea-mails throughout the region.

Study dates from the earliest times and includes military campaigns, maritime, censorship and airmails.

There is an introductory article to the philatelic history of the Gambia (by Oliver Andrew). Further articles will follow.

If you wish to contact the Study Circle for information which does not appear on the site, please use this email address (remove spaces): wasctreasurer @ aol. com

Recently available is a searchable spreadsheet of Nigerian town and village names created by member Graeme Murray from our publication "The Cancellations and Postmarks of Nigeria 1914-1980" by Neville Jones. Graeme retains the copyright to the spreadsheet but he is making it freely available to members. It will assist you in identifying offices when only a part of the cancellation is legible. There is also a document listing in text form all the offices in the book.

The booklist was updated in October 2011. Several new publications are listed.
One of the recent items is the 2nd edition of "Sierra Leone Registration" by Walton and Quirk.
Here is an update to that volume.

Congratulations on awards gained by Keith Hanman: National Gold and Best in Class for Sierra Leone Postal Stationery at ABPS Sheffield in May 2011 and International Gold at Philanippon in August. Frank Walton was UK Commissioner at Philanippon.

Details of meetings were updated in October 2011.

last updated: 28 November 2011