Philately:

An Ottoman “phoenix”

by Kaya DORSAN

Sometimes a stamp is issued and used for while, then ceases to be used as other stamps are put into circulation, even before the stocks have been exhausted. In order to prevent the remaining stamps from going to waste, post offices overprint them, so as to change their themes and values. In a sense, they turn these old stamps into new issues, and put them on sale again. This tactic has been used many times all around the world, and of course in Turkey too. But one Ottoman stamp is extraordinary in that it has been put on sale as many as twelve times, with a new overprint on each occasion.

This stamp was initially issued in 1892. It had a value of 10 para and formed part of a series of six stamps known as the ‘Stamp series with Arms and Tughra’. Immediately after the stamps were put on sale, some of them were marked “imprimé” using a handstamp, and used for printed matter. This applied to the other stamps in the series as well as the 10 para stamp.

In 1894, some of the same stamps were overprinted at the printing house in order to replace the previous, handstamped “printed matter” stamp. And in 1897, when the need arose for a stamp with a value of 5 para, yet another version of the stamp in question appeared, this time with a red printing house overprint in Turkish and French and a value of 5 para. The same overprint was also produced in black, to create a “printed matter” equivalent.

Reborn in war

In normal conditions, that would have been the end of the story. But the conditions of World War I were to cause the re-birth of the stamp. In 1915, the Ottoman State, unable to procure new stamps, decided to overprint the old stamps in its stocks and put them into circulation again. Thus, the stamps previously issued in 1892, 1894 and 1897 came out with a six-pointed star-and-crescent overprint.

During those years, July 10 - the date on which the Ottoman Constitution had been adopted - was celebrated as a national holiday. On July 10, 1916, on the eighth anniversary of the approval of the Constitution, a commemorative series of five stamps was prepared. These stamps were also made by overprinting previously-issued stamps. The overprint bore the date July 10, 1332, and one of the stamps on which it appeared was the old 1892 10 para Arms and Tughra stamp.

Old, unused stamps were to be reissued again that year. This time, a five-pointed star-and-crescent overprint was used, and the stamps of 1892, 1894 and 1897 appeared on post office counters in another new guise.

According to legend, the Phoenix is re-born from its own ashes. The 10 para stamp of 1892 had become the Phoenix of Turkish Postal History.

(DIPLOMAT  -  December 2005  -  Ankara)