After Gibraltar came under the British crown in 1704, mail was carried by ships whose Masters agreed to carry packets.

In 1749 the post of Civil Secretary to the Governor was created. It became the responsibility of the Civil Secretary to place the then haphazard Mail Service on an orderly footing. The Postal Act of 1806 introduced the use of the hand stamps to denote pre-payment of postage. The earliest known example of such a cancellation being used in Gibraltar is 1807. In 1809 a Packet Agent was appointed. The Civil Secretary's postal department, however, continued to function and Gibraltar found itself with what were virtually two postal services. This state of affairs came to an end in 1857 when they both closed down and the handling of Mail was taken over by the Post Office under the control of the Postmaster General in London (British adhesive stamps were used during this period and cancelled with the "GG" obliterator.)

On the 1^st January 1886 the Colonial Government of Gibraltar assumed control of its postal services, but at such short notice that it was impossible for stamps to be designed and printed in time. The Crown Agents therefore, as an interim measure, arranged to have the Bermuda plates overprinted "Gibraltar", using different colour to those previously used for Bermuda.

The first "proper" Definitive issue was put on sale in December the same year. In1889 it was thought convenient to have the Colony's stamps over-printed with peseta values because trade in Gibraltar was carried out in that currency. Later the same year the Fourth Definitive issue was released with the values in pesetas. With the outbreak of the Spanish - American War (1898) the exchange value of the peseta plummeted and it ceased to be the major trading currency in Gibraltar. In October 1898 the Fifth Definitive issue with values in sterling went on sale.

All subsequent issues have continued to be valued in sterling. Interestingly enough the peseta valued stamps in circulation, at the beginning of 1898 were over printed "Morocco Agencies" and used by the British Morocco Postal Agencies for the next ten years.

New ground for Gibraltar was broken with the Twelfth Definitive issue 1931. The Governor at the time, General Sir Alexander Godley, asked for a more attractive and original set of stamps to be produced and Captain H.M.C.Garrood, who was Gibraltar's Crown Surveyor and Engineer, obliged by designing the first pictorial set.