French post offices in Egypt

French post offices in Egypt

The French post offices in Egypt were a system of post offices maintained by France in Egypt during the early years of the 20th century. They were primarily intended to facilitate commercial and trading interests that needed to communicate between France and points east.

The post offices were located at Alexandria and Port Said.

France issued postage stamps for each of these two, generally at the same time and with the same general charactistics, with the one overprinted or inscribed "ALEXANDRIE" and the other "PORT-SAID".

The first issue appeared in 1899; it consisted of the post office name (as described above) overprinted on the current "Type Sage" stamps, a total of 15 values ranging from one centime to five francs. A shortage of the 25c values at Port Said necessitated surcharges on the 10c value, reading "PORT SAID / VINGT / CINQ". A few of these were additional overprinted with "25" in red ink.

The first stamps inscribed for these post offices were the French designs of 1900 modified to include the post offices' names. The 15 values appeared in 1902 and 1903.

In 1921 the stamps were surcharged in Egyptian currency, at the rate of about 2.5 centimes per milieme. Several forms of the surcharge exist. In Alexandria, local surcharges read "4 Mill." etc, while in Port Said they read "4 / Milliemes", with the number in a sans-serif typeface. Soon after Paris-produced surcharges arrived in both offices; they read "4 / MILLIEMES" etc. A new round of surcharges in 1925 added black bars to obscure the French currency values.

In 1927 and 1928 the old designs were reprinted but with millieme values substituted, ranging from 3 m to 250 m.

Sources

* Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
* [http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/home.html Encyclopaedia of Postal History]
* Stuart Rossiter & John Flower: "The Stamp Atlas"

Annotations

"Mn" as shown on some stamps means million.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • French post offices abroad — The French post offices abroad were a global network of post offices in foreign countries established by France to provide mail service where the local services were deemed unsafe or unreliable. They were generally set up in cities with some sort …   Wikipedia

  • French post offices in the Ottoman Empire — The French post offices in the Ottoman Empire were post offices in various cities of the Ottoman Empire run by France between 1812 and 1923. France was one of nine countries that had negotiated Capitulations with the Ottomans, various extra… …   Wikipedia

  • Egypt Eyalet — ايالة مصر (Arabic) Eyalet i Mısır (Turkish) Egypt Eyalet Province of the Ottoman Empire …   Wikipedia

  • Post Office Ltd — For the UK s mail delivery service, see Royal Mail. Post Office Ltd Type Wholly owned subsidiary Industry postal service Founded 1986 …   Wikipedia

  • EGYPT — EGYPT, country in N.E. Africa, centering along the banks of the River Nile from the Mediterranean coast southward beyond the first cataract at Aswan. The ancient Egyptians named their land Kemi, the Black Land, while the neighboring Asiatic… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • French Revolution — • A view of its effect on the Church Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. French Revolution     French Revolution     † …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Egypt — /ee jipt/, n. 1. Arab Republic of. a republic in NE Africa. 64,791,891; 386,198 sq. mi. (1,000,252 sq. km). Cap.: Cairo. Arabic, Misr. Formerly (1958 71), United Arab Republic. 2. an ancient kingdom in NE Africa: divided into the Nile Delta… …   Universalium

  • Egypt, ancient — Introduction  civilization in northeastern Africa dating from the 3rd millennium BC. Its many achievements, preserved in its art and monuments, hold a fascination that continues to grow as archaeological finds expose its secrets. This article… …   Universalium

  • History of Ottoman Egypt — Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Egypt was always a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control. It remained dominated by the semi autonomous Mameluks until it was conquered by the French in 1798. After the French were …   Wikipedia

  • French Algeria — Algérie française Départements of France …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”