Episode 2 of 4

1852 Definitive Series Change

When: 1852
Where: France
Part of: France issues its first postage stamps, the Ceres series

In 1852, a new definitive series replaced the Ceres head with Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, retaining the 'REPUB FRANC' inscription.

In 1852, a new series of definitive stamps was issued. This series retained the inscription 'REPUB FRANC' but replaced the head of Ceres with the head of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. This change reflected the political transition while maintaining the republican inscription.

Sources

Postage stamps and postal history of France Wikipedia, revision of 2026-01-08

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.