Collections

The South African Post Office Museum consists of a variety of collections. We do have stamps, first day covers, date stamps, artworks, uniforms, photographs, documents, and objects which were used in Post Offices.

First day covers

First day covers are important as they commemorate the day in which a stamp was issued. It is an envelope which has stamp affix to it and it is also cancelled which a permanent date stamp of the issue.

Stamps

The Museum collected almost a million stamps including the UPU stamps which are from member states. These stamps tell the history of South Africa and other countries respectively. As we call them the small ambassadors of the country they travel the world showing them what we have in our country. That is what makes them special. We are also rewriting the history of the country through stamps as they commemorate events which happened in the past. Through stamps we are also able to educate the nation about our heritage.

Date stamps

Date stamp or cancellers are being collected by the museum after they have been used in Post Offices counters and after a commemoration of a certain event. They depict areas where events where celebrated or the area where the Post Office in use is. They also have a date for that event. We have what we call permanent cancellers and temporary ones. A collection of these are available at the museum.

Postal objects

Postal objects like post boxes, postal stone, uniforms and franking machine have been collected by the Post Office Museum.

Photographs

Photographs have been collected about the history of the Post Office.

Artworks

Artworks are been stored at the museum after they were used at Philatelic Services to produce a stamp. These artworks are the larger versions of stamps and are specially designed by artist for the purpose of issuing a stamp. They have certain themes which they represent and a stamp programme is followed to issue this artworks