Philately

The world’s longest stamp series

by Kaya DORSAN

Postal authorities put new stamps into circulation either by issuing single stamps or by offering for sale a series consisting of more than one stamp. Series of stamps can be either commemorative – generally made up of 2-4 stamps - or definitive, in which case they most commonly consist of 8-10 stamps. However, the number of stamps in a series can vary considerably. Commemorative series have run to 10-12 stamps in some countries, while definitive series occasionally comprise 20-25 stamps.

Turkey holds the record for the series containing the highest number of stamps. The “Homeland Series” issued by Turkish Postal Administration between the years 1958 and 1960 was made up of two stamps for every province in the country. At that time, Turkey was made up of 67 provinces (There are now 81). Accordingly, the longest stamp series of the world includes a total of 134 stamps.

Each province was represented by two stamps, one with a face value of 5 kuruş and one of 20 kuruş. The stamps displayed characteristic pictures of the relevant provincial centres. The series was a definitive series, and each stamp was printed in Switzerland in one million copies. Since it was not possible to market such a large number of stamps all at once, the series was offered for sale on various dates in seven separate groups.

Overprint series

<metin>In fact, long series consisting of many stamps were not a new development in Turkish postal history. The most typical examples are the issues which appeared out of necessity during the First World War. In 1914, the Ottoman Empire ordered fresh postal stamps from London for use the following year. However, these were not delivered because the United Kingdom and the Ottoman State had entered the War on opposing sides. In response to the pressing need for stamps, various old stamps previously withdrawn from circulation and left to moulder away in the warehouses of the Ottoman Postal Administration were overprinted and offered for sale again. So it was that Turkey’s first long series, consisting of 69 stamps, came into being. This process was repeated in the following years.

<yazar>K.D.