Revenue stamps of Zanzibar Revenue stamps of Zanzibar Zanzibar issued revenue stamps from when it was a British protectorate in 1892, to after when it became part of Tanzania in 1993. Zanzibar's first revenues were Indian revenue or special adhesive stamps overprinted ZANZIBAR in capitals, and these were issued between May 1892 and August 1894. Various provisional overprints, some manuscript and some printed, were produced at around 1904, and most of these are rare. In 1905, postage stamps portraying Sultan Seyyid Hamoud bin Mahommed bin Said were overprinted "Revenue", and sometime later, 1 rupee surcharges appeared on this issue. Between 1907 and 1908 various
History of Zanzibar place to this day. The third pillar of the economy was slaves, which gave Zanzibar an important place in the Arab slave trade, the Indian Ocean equivalent of the better-known Triangular Trade. The Omani Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the African Great Lakes coast, known as Zanj, as well as extensive inland trading routes. Sometimes gradually, sometimes by fits and starts, control of Zanzibar came into the hands of the British Empire. In 1890, Zanzibar became a British protectorate. The death of one sultan and the succession of another of whom the British did not approve later