The letters "B.P.P." stand for "British Packet Postage". The mail was carried by either the Packet Service of the Indian Navy or by the "Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company" ("P.& O.") which obtained contracts to deliver the mail in and out of Aden in 1840, thus supplementing the services of the Navy. The P.& O. carried mails to and from Great Britain and the Continent in the West, and from India, China and Australia in the East. Theirs was a fairly comprehensive service with ships coming in and departing every week from the East and West.

Other companies were added to the postal services of Aden in the following decades. Services to the Far East and to the islands of Mauritius, Reunion and Seychelles were carried by "Messageries Maritimes", a French Paquet company. Services to Zanzibar and Southern Africa were carried by "The British India Steam Navigation Company". The Italian Company " Rubattino" carried mails on a monthly basis to Genova. The "Austrian Lloyd's" carried mail to Trieste.

The Bombay Postal Administration allocated the numeral "124" to the Post Office of Aden. A variety of postal markings with this numeral were generated up to the year 1875, when a new allocation was made affecting all the post offices under the jurisdiction of Bombay.

Postmark S-PM9 is very similar to that used at the Aden General post Office from 1858 onwards, and another used at Aden Steamer Point during the same period (refer to S-PM15).

Between 1840 and 1857 the only post office was situated at Crater, later renamed Aden Camp, and again renamed Aden Cantonment. By a directive dated 22 May of 1857, a new postmaster was appointed and a principal post office was built at Aden Steamer Point. This office was opened to the public in January of 1858. The office at Crater remained open and was redefined as a dependent sub-post office. Thus from this point on, canceling devices existed at both Steamer Point and Aden Camp and they differed accordingly. Mail moving between the two post offices of Aden did so by means of camel transportation. Later this internal mail was carried by a daily runner who left the Steamer Point office each morning at 11:00 and returned from Crater each afternoon at 3:00 PM. The fee for this courier service was governed by the Indian inland postage rate schedule.

This checklist and accompanying notes are intended to help the collector identify postmark varieties and rarities which may lay hidden in collections.

If you identify in your collection some of the rare items mentioned in this checklist, we recommend obtaining certificates of authenticity for such items. We will be happy to follow up with further information and advice. You may call Liane Sismondo or Sergio Sismondo at our Syracuse, New York office, telephone 315 422 2331. We will be happy to assist you in any way we can.

Virtually all stamps of British India, including Officials from 1854 to 1937 are found used in Aden. Following is a list of such stamps. Estimated values are minimums for fine strikes of the more common postmarks on fine stamps. Cover values are minimums for fine covers.

In addition, much mail would have arrived to Aden for transshipment to all locations of the world bearing appropriate postage but uncancelled. This would naturally arise as people would deliver mail directly to the ships in the hope of making a faster connection to the final destination. Captains and pursers would routinely add such letters to the mail bags to be delivered and sorted at Aden. Upon arrival to the Aden Post Offices, such uncancelled mail would receive the ordinary postmarks in use. This explains why a bewildering assortment of postage stamps of several countries are found with the "124" cancellers and other postmarks of Aden. Following is a checklist of the classical stamps more often found with Aden postmarks.

Postmark PM25 used the same device as PM24 with the removal of the obliterating small rhombus of parallel lines.

{*} The asterisk after the number indicates that this postmark was of standard issue in the Bombay Post Office Administrative Area (Bombay Circle), and may be essentially identical to postmarks applied at other offices. It may be identified as having been applied at Aden Camp or Aden General Post Office by other markings on the covers on which it is found.

Postmark PM31 was struck with the same device as PM13, with the word "PAID" having been removed.

This negative postmark is known on contemporary stamps of India, 8 pies mauve (Scott #19) or 2 annas orange (Scott #23). It was probably struck using the Post Office's official seal device, thus not meant to be a postmark, but pressed into service as a postmark for some unknown reason.

For a brief period of time the two Aden Post Offices were assigned different numbers: "124" remained with the General Post Office at Steamer Point, while the Office at Aden Cantonment was allocated the numeral "125". New devices were made.

Less than one year after the allocation of the numeral "125", the situation was modified again, assigning the numeral "124-A" to Aden Cantonment. This arrangement lasted until 1875, when a new numbering system was introduced in the Bombay Circle.

The year 1875 saw a global revision of the postal system of the Bombay Circle. Under the new provisions Aden received the office number "B-22" and Aden Cantonment the number "B-22/1".

Many rate changes were made during the 19th century as the postal systems of the world evolved and adapted to new geo-political circumstances and transportation technologies. Dates for the most important rate changes affecting the Aden Post Office are listed below as well as some of the most frequently used rates which came into effect with each ordinance.

Following, and by way of example only, are some selected postage rates to various destinations in effect during the period 1868-1876, at the time of the admission of India to the Universal Postal Union.

This checklist and accompanying notes are intended to help the collector identify postmark varieties and rarities which may lay hidden in collections.

If you identify in your collection some of the rare items mentioned in this checklist, we recommend obtaining certificates of authenticity for such items. We will be happy to follow up with further information and advice. You may call Liane Sismondo or Sergio Sismondo at our Syracuse, New York office, telephone 315 422 2331. We will be happy to assist you in any way we can.

An account of the activities of the Aden Post Office was published during 1877, later reproduced in Captain F.M.Hunter's:
An Account of the British Settlement of Aden in Arabia. Frank Cass & Co., Ltd., London, 1968. Some interesting statistics were published by Captain Hunter, including the table which follows. The large volume of incoming and outgoing letters is testimony to the centrality acquired by Aden in the commercial life of the Indian Ocean. Huge numbers of military and commercial vessels stopped at Aden for a wide variety of reasons, not the least of which was refueling. Thus soldiers, seamen, civilian merchants and tourists alike utilized the services offered by the Aden Post Office, giving rise to a volume of mail out of proportion with the requirements of the local population. Note that Aden did not have its own newspaper, thus many more arrived than were despatched. All printed matter could be sent at reduced rates. And yet, what precisely was available in Aden during these years which could be despatched abroad in such large quantities remains unclear. A surprisingly large volume of outgoing books handled by the post office raises similar questions.

To this picture we might add census of population figures reported in R.J.Gavin's monograph:
Aden Under British Rule, 1839-1967. London, 1975.

Given low literacy rates which prevailed during the 19th Century, it may be easily seen that the amount of mail sent out before the 1890's was indeed very small.

India joined the Universal Postal Union effective July 1st of 1876.Dependencies of the Bombay Circle, therefore, were bound by new international agreements and regulations which influenced the markings in use. Particularly affected were instructional and auxiliary postmarks which from this point onwards adhered to the new conventions.

{*} The asterisk after the number indicates that this postmark was of standard issue in the Bombay Post Office Administrative Area (Bombay Circle), and may be essentially identical to postmarks applied at other offices. It may be identified as having been applied at Aden Camp or Aden General Post Office by other markings on the covers on which it is found.

This checklist and accompanying notes are intended to help the collector identify postmark varieties and rarities which may lay hidden in collections.

If you identify in your collection some of the rare items mentioned in this checklist, we recommend obtaining certificates of authenticity for such items. We will be happy to follow up with further information and advice. You may call Liane Sismondo or Sergio Sismondo at our Syracuse, New York office, telephone 315 422 2331. We will be happy to assist you in any way we can.

{*} The asterisk after the number indicates that this postmark was of standard issue in the Bombay Post Office Administrative Area (Bombay Circle), and may be essentially identical to postmarks applied at other offices. It may be identified as having been applied at Aden Camp or Aden General Post Office by other markings on the covers on which it is found.

Sheik Othman was one of several sub-post-offices opened during the last few years of the 19th Century in the territory of Aden. The others were Khormaksar, opened April 1st of 1892, and Perim, also opened before 1900 -- the exact date is not known. Postmarks from these last two sub-post-offices dating from 19th Century, however, have not been found. Sheik Othman is a village is located in an oasis about 20 kilometers due north of the city of Aden. It was due to the presence of an army contingent on a permanent basis in this oasis that the post office was created. This postal facility remained open from 1891 to 1915, at which time it was replaced by an Indian Field Post Office (F.P.O. No. 324). In 1922 the Sheik Othman civilian post office was reopened and remained in service until it was shut down in 1937. During W.W.II the office was again reinstated for military reasons.

A unique cover is known which, having been returned to sender, readdressed and sent to Massaua for delivery a second time, received two strikes (both on reverse) of this scarce paquebot transit marking (May 21 1897 and June 16 1897).

This listing is intended to help the collector identify postmark varieties and rarities which may lay hidden in collections.

If you identify in your collection some of the rare items mentioned in this checklist, we recommend obtaining certificates of authenticity for such items. We will be happy to follow up with further information and advice. You may call Liane Sismondo or Sergio Sismondo at our Syracuse, New York office, telephone 315 422 2331. We will be happy to assist you in any way we can.