War and Philately

Provisional Issues: Provisional issues are usually stamps or stamp-like markings issued by, or used by local authorities when the regular supply of official government issues aren't available. Provisional issues aren't limited to issues resulting from wartime - occasionally, natural disasters have also spurred the use of provisional issues. Provisional issues are usually limited to a given location, rather than being used by a widespread portion of a nation or people.

One exception to the local rule for provisional issues are issues of provisional governments during the time of revolution or civil war. Occasionally, when one party prevails, these provisional issues are incorporated into the "regular" issues of that government. When the issuing government loses, their stamps are frequently forever relegated to "provisional" status, or not recognized at all. Some examples of provisional issues that are sometimes recognized and sometimes not are the issues of Katanga, Biafra, and South Kasai - all African locations that rebelled against the central government and lost, and the revolutionary issues of Indonesia and Vietnam, where the issuing government won, and the stamps are slowly being recognized as legitimate provisional issues of the "national government". An example of where provisional issues are accepted as being a part of the mainstream government is evident in the provisional issues of Columbia during its long civil war.

Military Stamps: Military stamps are usually issued to members of the armed forces of a given nation, frequently free, for use on personal mail of military members. Military stamps are not necessarily directly related to war - some nations have issued stamps specifically for the use of their military forces, regardless of whether there was an actual war being fought. A good example of these are the stamps of Finland that are issued to reservists during war games or active duty for training purposes. Other military stamps do have a direct correlation to war, such as the military parcel post stamps of Germany. Several hundred countries have issued military stamps for one reason or another.

War Tax Stamps: War Tax stamps are a tax on postal matter to help defray the cost of the war, or to pay down the debt incurred because of war. While War Tax stamps were

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