Forerunner - Definition and Overview

For the ancient alien race in the Halo series, see Forerunners. For the Dungeons and Dragons race, see Forerunner (Dungeons & Dragons)

In philately, a forerunner is a postage stamp used during the time period before a region or territory issues stamps of its own. Typically these will be stamps of the country administering a colony, but in some circumstances stamps of a previous regime may be pressed into service. Forerunners can only identified by the postmark, and very desirable on cover. Forerunners can only exist if the region of use later issues its own stamps.

In the case of most British colonies, British stamps were used before the colony received its own stamps, sometimes for many years, and uses can be identified both by postmark and by the combinations of letters and numbers in the grid cancel.

Note that provisional stamps produced by overprinting are still issues of the region, and thus do not qualify as forerunners.