Question: which areas use postage stamps from certain countries

how can I find out in which country postage stamps from another country are used.
e.g. Puerto Rico uses US postage stamps
is there an overview?
use any countries stamps of France or UK

These are usually either “territories” under administration of another country or occupied territories.

An example would be the Crimea. Currently they are using the Russian postal service and thus Russian stamps.

Historically this has happened a lot especially when the occupied lands did not have a proper postal service.

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This is an overview for all US territories using US stamps: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-US-Possessions-US-Territories-and-Freely-Associated-States-are-Considered-Domestic

As for France, I think Réunion uses French stamps, not sure about Guadeloupe …

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Martinique as well!

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Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, US Minor Outlying Islands, and all overseas US military bases use US stamps.
Svalbard and Jan Mayen use Norwegian stamps.
Reunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and Mayotte use French stamps.
Christmas Island, Cocos Island, and Norfolk Island can use Australian stamp aside from their own.

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The UK stamps are only valid in the UK, all the dependencies (Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Gibraltar, etc) have their own stamps (but they do have the Queen on the stamp, just like the UK)

I think the only other places that use UK Royal Mail postage are overseas UK miltary bases such as Royal Air Force (RAF) Akrotiri and Dhekelia on Cyprus and the likes. These Miltary Bases are allocated UK Postcodes by the RM and the Ministry of Defence/British Forces Post Office.

UK Crown Dependicies and Overseas Territories have their own postal admins as mentioned by Michiel above, interesting note is that their mail is usually routed via Royal Mail in the UK.
So a postcard, posted from the Isle of Man will be postmarked in the IOM but will then enter the RM mail stream via a GB/NI mail centre to its destination, a similar process for the channel Islands and Gibraltar.

Do many of the South Pacific islands use other countries mail systems for example do the Cook Islands and Nuie use NZ Post or do they have their own postal administrations?

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The Pacific countries of Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands have their own stamps, but a letter between them and the USA is the American domestic rate. When the US raises the rate, they do the exact same and they have American postal codes. Despite becoming independent in the 1990s, their postal systems are somehow still linked with the USPS.

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Thank you very much for the information, it helps a lot

From what I know, these islands have their own postal administration. Tokelau, Niue, Pitcairn Islands, Cook Islands however have their philatelic bureau in New Zealand. And New Zealand Post sells their stamps to collectors.

French Polynesia and New Caledonia have their own stamps as well but you can their stamps directly from them or from France’s La Poste website.

Interestingly, La Poste states that they handle all mail in Monaco and Andorra, even they’re the ones who provided them postcodes. They warned though that you should not put via France when sending to these countries :thinking:

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Andorra is also served by the Spanish post (Correos de España) and they have Spanish Andorra stamps. (Andorra is formally ruled by the Spanish bishop of Urgell and the French President)

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Whereas Åland Islands has nowadays postal services of its own, this hasn’t always been the case. For centuries, the postal services of Åland Islands were a part of another country’s postal services (first the Kingdom of Sweden, then the Grand Duchy of Finland/Russia and finally Finland). Åland got stamps of its own in 1984 and the postal services in January 1993.

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I would like to order online from the Spanish Post Office, but there is probably no possibility for foreigners to register or I am not at the right place