THAILAND - ราชอาณาจักรไทย

Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and formerly known as Siam, is a country in Southeast Asia. Located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, it is composed of 76 provinces, and covers an area of 513,120 square kilometres (198,120 sq mi), and a population over 69 million people. Thailand is the world's 50th-largest country by land area, and the 22nd-most-populous country in the world. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, a special administrative area. Thailand is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. Nominally, Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy; However, in recent history, its government has experienced multiple coups and periods of military dictatorships.

Tai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 11th century; the oldest known mention of their presence in the region by the exonym Siamese dates to the 12th century. 

Various Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon kingdoms, Khmer Empire and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang, Sukhothai, Lan Na and Ayutthaya, which rivalled each other. Documented European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, which became a regional power by the end of 15th century. Ayutthaya reached its peak during cosmopolitan Narai's reign (1656–1688), gradually declining thereafter until being ultimately destroyed in the 1767 Burmese–Siamese War. Taksin (r. 1767–1782) quickly reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-lived Thonburi Kingdom. He was succeeded in 1782 by Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (r. 1782–1809), the first monarch of the current Chakri dynasty.

Through the 18th and 19th centuries, Siam faced imperialist pressure from France and the United Kingdom, including many unequal treaties with Western powers and forced concessions of territory; it nevertheless remained the only Southeast Asian country to avoid direct Western rule. Siamese system of government was centralized and transformed into modern unitary absolute monarchy in the reign of Chulalongkorn (r. 1868–1910). Siam joined World War I siding with the allies, a political decision to amend the unequal treaies. Following a bloodless revolution in 1932, Siam became a constitutional monarchy and changed its official name to "Thailand". Thailand was a satellite of Japan in World War II. In the late 1950s, a military coup under Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat revived the monarchy's historically influential role in politics. Thailand became a major ally of the United States, and played a key anti-communist role in the region as a member of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Apart from a brief period of parliamentary democracy in the mid-1970s, Thailand has periodically alternated between democracy and military rule. Since the 2000s, Thailand has been caught in a bitter political conflict between supporters and opponents of Thaksin Shinawatra, which culminated in two coups, most recently in 2014 and the establishment of its current and 20th constitution. 

Before Siam issued its first stamp, there was a limited mail service, mainly for the royal family. Domestic mail travelled by messengers while international mail travelled by steamboat to post offices in nearby countries, such as the Straits Settlements. The first real postal service was established in Siam in 1880. Prince Bhanurangsi Savangwongse was appointed by King Chulalongkorn in 1881 to set up and run the service, due to his earlier experience in running newspaper delivery services. The postal service was started on 4 August 1883 with one post office building, called Praisaneeyakarn (Thai: ไปรษณียาคาร) on the bank of Chao Phraya River near Ong Ang Canal. The first postage stamps — the Solot Series — and a postcard were issued on the same day. The initial postal service area was limited to Sam Sen on the north, Bang Kho Laem on the south, Talad Phlu on the west, and Si Prathum on the east. Additional post offices were opened starting with Samut Prakan and Nakhon Khuen Kan (present day Phra Pradaeng District) in July 1885.

The earliest recorded mail from Bangkok dates back only to 1836 when American missionary Dan Beach Bradley sent a letter to his father in a stampless cover. The British Consular Post Office in Bangkok was established by Great Britain in 1858 as a consequence of a treaty signed between Great Britain and Siam (now known as Thailand) on 18 April 1855, and in response to a demand by expatriate merchants and missionaries. It ceased to provide service on 1 July 1885, the day Siam joined the Universal Postal Union and started its own international postal service. During that time most of the mail from Bangkok was sent by diplomatic pouch to Singapore for forwarding. Thus most such mail has a Singapore cancel.

Initially, postage stamps of India were used here and throughout the Straits Settlements. This lasted until 1867 when Straits Settlements stamps were first produced. When Honorary Postmaster Gardner complained in 1881 that he should be compensated for the increasing amount of work that was required of him it was agreed that a portion of the revenue for stamp sales would be retained. This led to the overprinting during 1882 of Straits Settlement with the letter B, representing Bangkok, for use there.

The covers sent on 17 December 2014, and I received on 10 January 2015.