Beautiful designs on French Equatorial Africa 1937 first airmail set

Apr 16, 2025, 8 AM

Stamp Market Tips by Henry Gitner and Rick Miller

Any given stamp can be collected for a variety of reasons: because it’s valuable, because it was issued by a country of interest, because of the subject matter, because of its beauty or unusual appearance, or just because it catches the collector’s eye.

For example, take the French Equatorial Africa first airmail set issued in 1937 (Scott C1-C8). French Equatorial Africa was a federation of French colonies that included Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari and French Chad. It issued its first stamps in 1936 and its last stamps in 1958 when it was divided into the Republic of the Congo, Chad, Gabon and the Central African Republic.

With a Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue value of $8 in unused, hinged condition, this will never be a valuable set of stamps. There were two designs used for the 1937 set: a multi-engine biplane flying boat with multiple engines mounted above the top wing, and a monoplane trimotor with nonretractable landing gear and one engine mounted at the nose of the fuselage and the other two mounted on the wings. We have not been able to positively identify either type of airplane, and it is likely that they were generic representations rather than actual plane types.

The flying boat is shown in the air over Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo, and the trimotor is depicted passing over the Stanley Pool (today known as Pool Malebo) on the border between the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The stamps were printed by photogravure on unwatermarked paper and perforated gauge 13½. They boast high design and production values typical of French colonies issues. What makes this set really pop visually is the bright pastel colors in which the stamps were printed.

In addition to aviation topical collectors, this set is of interest to France and area collectors as well as Congo collectors. The set is readily available in unused, hinged condition for $5 or $6. It is a little less common in mint, never-hinged condition and is a good buy at $8 in that condition.

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