Since it has been nearly a century since the Ottoman Empire lept into the proverbial dustbin of history, and since the dynastic land empire concept had been wearing thin even then, seeing an Ottoman postage stamp can seem a little bit like finding Pepin the Short's cell phone. But naw, it was a country well into the era of postal service.
If I'm not mistaken, this stamp bears the "Scott number" 254, which I believe means that it is very approximately the 254th specific stamp design issued by its country, ie. the Ottoman Empire. It was issued quite late in the game, 1914. The folks at Yellow Aircraft, "Your Online Ottoman and Turkish Stamp Store" will sell you a used specimen for 35 cents, which is really about the lowest possible price you could pay for any single item online. I have not proven that my unused specimen isn't tremendously valuable, but I feel it's a safe bet.
1 comment:
I have a couple of Ottoman stamps too, and feel the same way.
I remember a few years ago I was doing research on the national anthems of the Ottoman Empire for my website http://www.nationalanthems.info and was quite pleased with myself for finding as much as I could (which was a hell of a lot considering, if you check out the site), especially since I was about 100 years too late to write to the Ottoman embassy for information ...
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