Second Republic, 1849-1851 The two first postal stamps issued in France were of the Ceres series. They were printed with the effigy of
Ceres, goddess of growing plants in
Roman mythology. She wore a garland of wheat and a
bunch of grapes in her hair. The design, which avoided any specifically republican or Revolutionary connotations, was drawn by
Jacques-Jean Barre, general engraver at the
Paris Mint, under the supervision of
Anatole Hulot, a civil servant who obtained the right to print the stamps at the Mint until 1876. The issue on the first January 1849 marked the application of a postal reform similar to the one in the
United Kingdom of May 1840: to simplify the nationwide postal rates between
Metropolitan France,
Corsica and
French Algeria and to encourage the payment by the sender through the use of postage stamps. In January 1849, the two first
denominations were a
20 centimes black stamp and a
1 franc red. As the postal reform was extended to other rates (local, rural and newspapers), new denominations were issued. As early as 1849, the first of these stamps that earned philatelic interests afterwards existed. Because the black cancellations can be masked and the 20 centimes black stamp easily reused, the issue of the 40 centimes blue in January was aborted and switched to orange. While the 20 centimes blue was first printed in Spring 1849, it never replaced its black counterpart because of a change of rates in July 1850. In December 1849, part of the much paler red of the 1 franc stamps were recalled by the postal administration because their tint was too close to the 40 centimes orange to be issued in February 1850. The lighter stamps were named "
vermilion" by philatelists. Two half-stamps of each tint were stuck on the official order to retrieve the vermilion. After the
coup in December 1851, Prince-President
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte decided to have
his effigy on French stamps. The first denominations were issued progressively from September 1852 and throughout the
Second Empire. A poor imitation of the French stamps was used by the
Corrientes Province local post in
Argentina between 1856 and 1880.
Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871 During the
Franco-Prussian War, after Republicans abolished the Empire of Napoléon III on 4 September 1870, they faced the
siege of Paris by the German armies and the lack of postage stamps from the former rule. Houlot had to print new Ceres stamps until the insurrection of the
Paris Commune, in Spring 1871. The printer told afterwards he hid the Ceres series material and was forced by the insurgents to print Napoleon III stamps. At the same time, in
Bordeaux, where the provisional government fled, the printing of Ceres stamps was authorized from the 5 November 1870 to the 4 March 1871 to supply the post offices of non-occupied France. The stamps were printed in
lithography (instead of
typography) by Augée-Delile. Because of this choice, stamps differ repetitively from one another. In July 1875, the postal administration gave the printing of its postage stamps to the
Banque de France to reduce the high cost and delays it accused Hulot. The stamp design was changed too: a competition launched in August 1875 was won by
Jules Auguste Sage with its
Commerce and Peace uniting and reigning over the world allegory. The new stamps were issued in 1876.
1937-1941 For the philatelic exhibition of Paris in 1937, PEXIP, a minisheet of four bicolored Ceres stamps was issued. The next year, in 1938, began a new Ceres series with high values (1.75 to 3 francs), alongside the
Sower series and the
Peace series. The head was kept into a new decorum. All these definitives were retired in 1941 and replaced by
Philippe Pétain's effigies, the
Iris and
Mercury series.
Liberation, 1945-1947 In 1945, a redesign effigy of Ceres by
Charles Mazelin was among the numerous definitive series to be issue in liberated France.
Since 1949, on commemorative stamps The Jacques-Jean Barre's Ceres effigy had appeared again on stamps commemorating the
philatelic and postal history of France: • 1948:
Stamp's Day stamps on stamps with effigy of
Étienne Arago, director of posts in 1849; • 1949: a vertical stripe of two Ceres stamps and two
Mariannes by Gandon (the definitive series of the time) for the centenary of the first French postage stamp; • 1949: inside a large white minisheet, was printed in
intaglio a vermilion 10 franc Ceres stamp for the CIPEX exhibition in Paris; • 1999: for the 150th anniversary, a booklet of five black Ceres and one red Ceres stamps on stamps; • 1999: at the occasion of Philexfrance '99 in Paris, a stamp on stamp with the 20 centimes black and a
holographic Ceres head. The logo of the philatelic service of
La Poste used the Ceres head. == In the French colonies ==