Published by kind permission of the Editor of Stamp News Australasia.

In the 1970s I spent most of my summer holidays in the south of France. At that time Radio Andorra was a major radio station in that part of the world dishing out a variety of popular music with a distinctly Spanish flavour. I tuned in on a daily basis but never realized my dream of visiting the tiny principality nestled high up in the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and France.

A few years ago I finally managed to visit Andorra while on a trip to Barcelona in Spain. The three-hour bus ride from Barcelona to Andorra offered an endless array of spectacular mountain scenery as our bus struggled up the steep roads. The bus guide told us that the road had been completely rebuilt in connection with the Barcelona 1992 Olympics.

I have collected Andorran stamps since I was a young boy and I really looked forward to having a first glance glimpse of what Andorra is really like. Andorra is pretty unique as far as sovereign states are concerned. It is a principality with two heads of state – the Spanish bishop of Urgel and the French president. However, since 1993 the Principality of Andorra is a sovereign state with its own constitution, parliament and government. The state now even has the right to tax its people but my guess is that those taxes are pretty low as many super rich people want to make Andorra their home.

If you check your stamp catalogue you will find that Andorra has two separate postal systems. The Spanish postal administration issued its first Andorran stamps in 1928 by overprinting the current definitives with the words CORREOS ANDORRA. The year after the Spaniards released a set of pictorial stamps featuring mostly local scenery and the General Council. The stamps had denominations in pesetas and céntimos, the Spanish currency.

The French followed suit in 1931 by overprinting a large number of contemporary definitives with the word ANDORRE. In the following year they began issuing a very long using a very long set of large sized pictorial stamps depicting Andorran scenery including a view of Andorra la Vella, the principality’s capital. French currency was of course used.

The Spanish and the French still operate separate postal services in the country. Andorra has no currency of its own but instead has always used those of France and Spain. However, as of January 1, 2002, the Euro is the new currency in all three countries. This of course makes shopping in the Principality a lot easier.

When we arrived at the Andorran border the policeman on duty just had a quick look at the bus and its passengers and we could start the last leg of our journey to Andorra la Vella.

Today Andorra has a population of some 73,000 and about one third of them live in the capital. Thousands of foreign visitors come to the city every day. What they are looking for are good bargains in the many supermarkets and more specialised shops which line the main street in Andorra la Vella. Electronics, tobacco products and alcoholic beverages of all kinds appear to be the top sellers. Taxes are very low and thus these products are priced substantially lower than in Franco and Spain.

I preferred to find out as much as possible about Andorra in the few hours that were at my disposal. Thanks to helpful Andorrans I was quickly able to locate the two post offices. At the French post office all current stamps were exhibited in a frame on one of the walls but this was not the case at the Spanish one. I interviewed one of the staff members at the Spanish post office who told me that cards and letters weighing up to 350 grams each are delivered free of charge if posted to addressees within the principality’s boundaries. Heavier items have to be paid for as well as all mail items to foreign destinations. The two post offices use the same rates as the ones used in the home countries and both the French and Spanish postal administrations employ their own postmen. He added though that there is a lot of cooperation between the two services.

Andorra la Vella is a very busy city today with a lot of construction work going on everywhere. Not much space is available as the city is located in a narrow valley with the Valira river running straight through it. Most of the buildings are very modem and I had to walk for quite a while before finding the more traditional stone buildings that were so familiar to me from older Andorran stamps.

My main interests in Andorran philately are the many bogus stamps and essays that were produced long before the first postage stamps were issued in 1928. There are two stamp shops in Andorra la Vella. Unfortunately, neither of the shops was able to offer the stamps that I needed for my collection.

Sauntering back to the bus in a slight rain, I admired the policewomen who directed the traffic at a couple of crossroads in downtown Andorra la Vella. I entered a tiny cafe to have a beer. The owner was speaking in Catalan with some other guests. That reminded me of the fact that most native Andorrans speak Catalan (the language spoken in the Spanish region of Catalunya) but for many years the Spanish and French postal administrations used their own languages on Andorra’s stamps. The Spanish switched to the Catalan language with the International Year of the Child issue of October 18, 1979 (Correus – Principat d’Andorra). The French Post Office started using bilingual inscriptions (Andorre-Andorra) for its stamps in 1975. Since 1978 the French stamps also carry the country name of Principat d’Andorra. In addition they also include La Poste, the name of the French Postal Service.

One of the stated advantages of the Euro, the new European currency, is that it will allow consumers to better compare prices in the countries of the European Union and thus lead to lower prices. It seems that the French postal service in Andorra is mainly used for mail to France and the Spanish one for mail to Spain. When we left Andorra, an officer of the principality’s customs service checked the luggage of all the passengers in the bus. I really wonder why as the Spaniards didn’t do the same. Andorra has a long reputation for smuggling all kinds of products between France and Spain and vice versa. But with taxes considerably lower than in the two neighbouring countries Andorra will no doubt remain a heaven for shoppers. My visit to Andorra, albeit very limited, helped rekindle my interest in Andorran stamps. It most certainly is an area which offers a lot of possibilities. Designs almost always reflect various aspects of the Principality and collecting its stamps will teach you a lot about history, culture and wildlife in Andorra, one of the world’s smallest independent nations.