The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country situated in South Asia. It is bordered by Iran in the west, Pakistan in the south and east and Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north. Its capital is Kabul. From 1919 to the late 1970, the country was a monarchy. It then became a socialist state and and thereafter a protectorate of the Soviet Union. In the 1980’s the Soviet-Afghan war took place against the rebels, but by 1996 most of the country had been captured by the Taliban who ruled the country for about 5 years. A new democratically elected republic was formed after the Taliban had been removed by a NATO-coalition.

The first stamps which were round, appeared in 1871. In 1891, the round stamps were replaced by rectangular ones. The first stamp after independence, appeared in 1920 featuring the royal star of King Amanullah. In 1928, Afghanistan joined the Universal Postal Union. No stamps were issued during the civil war from 1989 – 2001. After the Taliban had been defeated, the country once again began issuing stamps.

1963

Jeux Asiatiques Gagnant

From 04/1961 – 03/1964 many Afghan stamps were issued by an agency under contract to the Afghan Government and made available to the philatelic trade. These are not listed in SG. Some of the stamps were eventually used for postage in 1979. Cinderella stamp???

Afghanistan-No-No-1-AK1