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This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Qatar.
Contents
First mails
Qatar had special treaty relations with Great Britain from 1916 until 3 September 1971, when it became an independent state.
From 18 May 1950 British residents were able to send mail through the office of the British Political Officer in Doha. The first three sendings of mail had Bahrain or British Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia stamps which were cancelled by a circular office stamp but later mail had the stamps cancelled at Bahrain until a Doha canceller was introduced in July 1950. Before 1950, foreign residents made their own arrangements for mail to be sent to Bahrain from where it entered the postal system.
In August 1950 the post office became a separate organisation open to the public and a further post office was opened at Umm Said oil terminal on 1 February 1956. British stamps overprinted BAHRAIN were used at first, followed by stamps of the British Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia. Mian Muhammad Rafique Ahmed, a Pakistani, was Qatar's first Postmaster General, appointed in 1955.
Overprinted British stamps
On 1 April 1957, twelve British stamps from the Wilding series were issued, along with overprinted high value 'castles' stamps. Later in 1957, three stamps from the British Scouting Jubilee series were issued and in 1960 a further series of Wilding stamps were issued with a different watermark. All were overprinted QATAR and the value in Indian currency.
First Qatari stamps
The first stamps issued inscribed Qatar, rather than British stamps overprinted Qatar, were a definitive stamp series of 11 issued on 2 September 1961 depicting sheikh Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani.
On 23 May 1963 the Qatar Post Department took responsibility for postal services in Qatar and from 1966 the currency used on stamps was changed from Indian Rupees to Dirhams and Riyals.
Since independence
Qatar became independent on 3 September 1971 and this was marked with a set of four stamps issued on 17 January 1972. Regular commemorative and definitive stamps have been issued since then, mostly on subjects relevant to Qatar. A postage stamp booklet was issued in 1977.