Navigation and Commerce issue

[1] The issue uses a standard design featuring allegorical representations of navigation and commerce.

The territory name is imprinted in a rectangular cartouche centered at the bottom of the stamp.

Dates vary by territory, but by 1900 values start appearing surcharged in red or black ink to use the remaining stocks while colonies then used illustrated stamps.

Charles Hirschburger, a forger of postage stamps, and successor to master forger François Fournier, made copies of the Navigation and Commerce stamps from the various colonies, including "most denominations".

[10] The forgeries were made on sheets of 30 stamps, each having a different colony name in the lower panel.