British POs in
Turkish Empire (British Levant)
FIRST STAMPS British
1854.
FIRST STAMPS ISSUED 1 April 1885.
CURRENCY
1885, 40 paras = 1 piastre.
1886, Turkish.
British Embassy
mail started in 1832. In November 1854 an Army P0 was established in
Constantinople as a sorting and forwarding office for forces in the Crimea.
The PO was opened for public
service (oblit. 'C' in oval of bars) in September 1857; further POs were opened
in Smyrna in 1872 (oblit. F87) and Beirut in 1873 (oblit. G 06). A second
office was opened at Stamboul (oblit. S in oval bars) in 1884 but this was
closed in the 1890s and did not reopen until 1908. |
Because of speculation with
Turkish currency, stamps overprinted in Turkish currency were issued on 1 April
1885. These were used concurrently with British adhesives and, later, stamps in
British currency overprinted LEVANT. The latter were used for prepayment of
parcels where the value of the contents was expressed in sterling.
An office was opened at Salonica
in 1900 but only circular postmarks were used. All offices were closed on 30
September 1914, but the Smyrna office was reopened during 19 19-22 and used
unoverprinted adhesives.
Constantinople had a British Army
PO in 1918-20 and a civilian PO with overprinted stamps was open from 1920 to
1923. |
