Postage stamps of Bahrain from my album

Like the postal history of Kuwait that I posted a couple of days before, the postal history of Bahrain is no different, rather it is identical.  The first post office of Bahrain was opned in its capital city Manama on 1^st August 1884. Initially the British stamps with overprint “BAHRAIN” were used till 1933. The King George V appeared on the British stamps with the overprint.

From 1933 onwards till the independence of the British India, the Indian stamps with overprint BAHRAIN were used. The stamps of India bore the head of King George V (above left). From 1948 to 1960, the British stamps replaced the British Indian stamps. These stamps bore heads of King George VI (above centre) and then Queen Elizabeth II with the BAHRAIN overprint.

Bahrain finally issued its first indigenous stamp in 1960 bearing the portrait of Shaikh Sulman bin Hamed al-Khalifa with Arabic text. . In 1964 stamps depicting Shaikh Isa bin Sulman al-Khalifa (above right) were issued.  The postal services were finally taken over by Bahrain from the Britain on 1 January 1966.

My collection of stamps of Bahrain starts with the British stamps with BAHRAIN overprint bearing the head of Queen Elizabeth II issued after her coronation in 1953 (above left column) . The remaining stamps were issued from 1964-1966.