The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, known as Burma before 1990 (and still today, to some), is a country in southeast Asia between India and Thailand with a fairly simple but interesting postage stamp history. Collectors of Burma stamps today often collect examples of stamps and philatelic collectibles from the different eras of the controversial country.
First Burma Stamps: 1937-1938
Burma was a British colony in 1937 when it first used its own stamps. These collectible pieces were British India stamps with BURMA overprints. Also in 1937 came some nice stamps for official use; these added the word SERVICE to the BURMA overprints.
Then in 1938, Burma was issued its very own, non-overprinted stamps. These first true Burma stamps used the Indian currency system of pies, annas, and rupees. Some of these stamps, too, were used officially, with the SERVICE overprint. Official stamps with overprints in the Burmese script were also issued, and acquiring examples of each is a nice way to add early Burma stamps to your own collection.
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Japanese Occupation of Burma Stamps (World War II)
In 1942, Japan occupied Burma and used its own stamps. There were several different varieties of these Japanese occupation stamps from 1942 to 1944, and they are very popular with collectors. Covers, too, from this era are much sought after of course.
After World War II and the defeat of the Japanese, the postal system of Britain in Burma was restarted. Under the control of the British Military Administration, the new stamps were Britain’s own resurrected pre-war Burma stamps, but with new overprints: MILY ADMN. In 1946, Britain finally was able to issue new stamps inscribed BURMA.
Burmese Independence
In 1948, Burma gained independence from Britain, calling itself the Union of Burma. New stamps at first copied the design of recent British Burma stamps. Soon, subsequent stamp issues used the full English name of the Union plus the Burmese name:
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ပြည်ထောင်စုမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်.
The Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma Stamps
In 1974, the country changed its name to the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma. This again was inscribed on stamps in English and in Burmese, and collectors of non-English scripts will be particularly interested in getting one of more of these:
ပြည်ထောင်စုဆိုရှယ်လစ်သမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်.
“Myanmar” or “Burma”? Name Confusion in 1990
Changes in 1990 brought about much confusion as to the name of the country. The military government changed the official English name to the Union of Myanmar, the legitimacy of which was accepted by some countries and not by others who continue to use “Burma”. (“Myanmar” and “Burma” are both, incidentally, English transliterations of the same word, Bamar, which is the name of the ethnicity that comprises most of the country.)
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At any rate, as far as what’s most important for stamp collectors, post-1990 stamps have used UNION OF MYANMAR and ပြည်ထောင်စုမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်, the same Burmese phrase as 1948-1974 stamps.
As the modern history of Myanmar/Burma continues to develop, future changes are hard to predict. The volatility of the nation is reflected in Burma stamps, and those stamps remain a fascinating area for many collectors.
