Blue Penny Museum, Mauritius Overview

Blue Penny Museum is a famous stamp museum located at the capital of Mauritius in Port Louis. Ever since its inauguration in 2011, the Blue Penny Museum has continue to take visitors on enthralling journeys of the rich culture and history of the island. The Museum is named after the famous 1847 2-pence Blue Penny Stamp, which had been engraved for Mauritian post offices by Joseph Osmond, back in the 1800s.

With a long history of hundreds of years of colonial rule, it is no wonder that Mauritius is home to a plethora of museums littering the entire island. Starting from museums showcasing the lives and times of people from the Dutch, French and British colonial rule to the history of production of sugar to even museums dedicated to the art and culture of Mauritius; there are plenty of museums located across various corners of the island that attract vast numbers of tourists, especially history aficionados and those interested in learning more about the country of Mauritius.

What to Expect - Collections at the Museum

Mauritius was one of the first few countries in the world to start using postage stamps for communication via written mail, and these first-edition stamps are now valued at a high price all over the world.

The pride of the museum lies in its one-penny and two-penny post office stamps from 1847 which are kept proudly on display, but aside from the stamps, the museum also houses an enviable collection of old marine maps used by sailors back in the past, paintings from colonial times, as well as old engravings, inscriptions and sculptures.
Through various exhibits and galleries depicting the history and culture of Mauritius, the museum thoroughly educates visitors on the diverse history of Mauritius, starting from the colonial occupation the slave trade and the slaves struggle for freedom, and through the entire chapter of the Mauritian history of independence.

The prize collections of the museum are the two ‘Post Office’ stamps dating back to 1847, and these two stamps are renowned all over the world for being two of the most valued collections of ancient philately.
The one-penny orange-red stamp and the two-pence indigo blue stamp are the two stamps this museum is famous for, and these stamps have essentially been declared a national treasure.
Being ancient, the stamps are delicate; thus they are displayed only during certain times in the day when they are illuminated in all their entirety; for the rest of the day, visitors can see reprints of the original stamps.

Aside from stamps and old artefacts and curious, the Blue Penny museum houses a few exhibition rooms which focus on different aspects of philately and postal history in the country, as well as the development of the capital of Mauritius, with some maritime history thrown in the mix too.
The most famous of these exhibition rooms is the room devoted entirely to the love story of Paul et Virginie (a very renowned mythical Mauritian novel), which draws in crowds of visitors interested in knowing more about the legend and the tragic story of the couple of Paul and Virginie, set against the backdrop of Mauritius itself.

After you’re done touring the various exhibits and galleries on display, you can head over to the souvenir shop to buy some postcards, curios or replicas of some of the exhibits in the museum, to take back home for your family and friends.

Rooms in the Museum

Visitors begin their journey in the first room with exhibits, maps and sculptures depicting the majestic maritime explorations of sailors in the fearsome Indian Ocean. The second room houses exhibit depicting the colonial rule in Mauritius and Mauritius' struggle to gain independence from its colonial masters. The third room is devoted to Mauritius' capital city - Port Louis.

This room depicts Port Louis of the 18th and 19th centuries, illustrating the topography, before and now photos of the city, and development in general. Visitors shall then venture into the fourth room which documents Mauritius' postal history. Right from the beginning of postal services on the island under the Dutch to the stamp-making process, this room is undoubtedly a philatelist's delight.

It also houses the two incredibly valuable stamps which lend this museum its name and were issued back in 1847 under the rule of the British. These stamps were bought for a whopping 2 million USD in 1993 by a consortium of Mauritian enterprises and brought back to Mauritius after 150 years. Finally, the last room houses the tale of Paul and Virginie - the protagonists of the romantic literature masterpiece penned by French author Jacques-Henri Bernardin, set on the island of Mauritius.