Postal Service in Portugal - 500 Years

Objects over years

The "Postal Service in Portugal - 500 Years" stamp issue focusing on the theme “Postal service objects over the years” is a successfully executed evocation of items from the Post O ce museological collection, entrusted to the Fundação Portuguesa das Comunicações, remembering interesting stories from the time of the Postmasters to the present day.

Era of the Masters of the Post

Two of the oldest pieces from the collection, dating back to the 18th century, were chosen for the stamp representing this era. These are two precious silk bags used for protecting special mail, and about which we have little information today. The light blue bag was used for transporting mail from the Inquisition Court in Évora to its counterpart in the cityof Lisbon. The red bag was used for transporting O cial Mail from the Purveyor of the Mint of Bahia, in Brazil, to theRoyal Treasury Court in the city of Lisbon. This stamp also features a reference to the Royal Charter signed by King José I in 1756 appointing José António da Mata de Sousa Coutinho as Master of the Posts and also contains the transcriptionof the previous royal licences for the same O ce, which had been destroyed by the re following the great earthquakeof 1755, causing irreparable damage to the Postmaster General’s Palace.

The rst half of the 19th century

The letter weighing scale invented by Lourenço de Araújo, Deputy-Inspector General of the Courier and PostalServices of the Kingdom, was selected to illustrate the stamp for this era. The scale is a very curious item, with the unusual characteristic of immediately indicating the money due for the correspondence upon weighing the letters. Three models of this scale were manufactured by J.B. Haas of Lisbon, which specialised in high-precision instruments,and these date back to 1812, 1814 and 1853, revealing the longevity of their use.

The other item included on the stamp is a mail box from the Alentejo Mail Coach, dating back to 1830. This is a small chest made from tinplate, which belonged to the Mala-Posta do Alentejo route, operating between 1830 and 1831.It was based at the Lavre Relay Station and was intended for storing letters and documents on the Aldeia Galega/Badajoz route.

The second half of the 19th century

The stamp for this era is illustrated by a symbol of the history of the Postal Service in Portugal – the mail coach no. 7.These years were marked by a signi cant development of the transport and communications systems in Portugal, a period commonly known as Fontismo. Imported from Belgium in 1854, this mail designed stagecoach began to be used the following year on the restructured Lisbon/Coimbra route, following extensive restoration works on theformer royal road. From 1857, as construction of the road advanced towards the north, the mail route was graduallyextended until it reached Alto de Bandeira, opposite the city of Porto, in 1859.

This stagecoach remained in operation until 1864, when the railway reached the city and put an end to the Lisbon/Porto mail route with horse-drawn coaches.
The “Postal Directorate” plaque is another item illustrating this era. The 1852 Postal Reform allowed modernisationof the postal services, and the postal counters in the largest cities in the kingdom came to be known as “PostalDirectorates”, identi ed by plaques featuring the Portuguese royal coat of arms.

The 20th century

This philatelic souvenir sheet dedicated to the 20th century focuses on one of the most signi cant projects developed by the Postal Service at the time: the General Construction and Modernization Plan. This Plan aimed to overcame thedegradation and inadequacy of many of the buildings occupied by the General Administration of the CTT at the time.Adelino Nunes was one of the invited architects, and became the main mentor of the project, designing excellent,avant-garde buildings.

The Post O ce building in Estoril, a very modern proposal in its day, is a representative item of Portuguese architecture,showing that the designers were granted a certain degree of conceptual freedom. To better highlight this fact, PortugalPost decided to apply on this souvenir sheet a circular perforation pattern, produced using an exclusively designedperforation tool.

The 21st century

The last stamp of this commemorative issue deals with Post O ce concerns with environmental protection, a subjectthat enhanced the public awareness of the CTT a few years ago. The stamp for these modern times shows the VEDUR – Electric Vehicle for Urban Distribution, which is a 100% electric tricycle with autonomy up to 65 km and a carrying capacity of 1 m3 in volume and 75 kg in weight. The VEDUR was developed by a Portuguese start-up company, UOUMobility, winner of a national innovation award. The very rst VEDUR prototype will join the Postal Service museumcollection.

Fernando Moura