This week I want to continue the series on philatelic materials describing some of the historical aspects of Palestine. While the first and second articles touched on Gaza under Egyptian administration and the West Bank under Jordanian administration, this week features materials from the State of Palestine itself.
5694 : Here are the second and third oldest stamps issued for Palestine in 1918 (I couldn’t afford the first one).The stamps were those used by the British Expeditionary Force in Egypt and over-printed with "Palestine". Note that the first stamp has the value of one piastre while the second has been over-printed with a new currency, and valued at "5 Milliemes".
5697:From the new series of stamps in 1920/1921 here are three stamps with the over-print of Palestine in three languages; Arabic, English and Hebrew. We are now under the British mandate and these stamps were printed in Jerusalem.
5698: The same set of stamps were re-printed in 1921/1922 in London. Here we have what is known as a block of four with a "gutter" in between the top and bottom stamps, an interesting philatelic speciality. To note that the Arabic "Falestine" is smaller than in the previous set. and the English letters have no serifs.
5699:This is one of the only set of definitive stamps issued in Palestine (I showed the whole set last week ). The difference here is the small label/tag at the bottom with the numeral "1" which may indicate the sheet it came from.
5700: Here is another of these stamps -a strip of five- with the label/tag showing the number "2". One can also see the printed number 18234 on the label which may be the serial number of the sheet from which these were taken.
5701: Here are three different "postage due" stamps (when insufficient postage is on a mailing). From left the first is dated 1923 and its value is 4 milliemes; the second is dated 1924 and has a one millieme value; the third is the same stamp re-issued and used from 1928 to 1947 with the value in the new currency of MILS.
5702: I will now feature some interesting envelopes/covers from Palestine. This is a post card sent from Jerusalem to Philadelphia in the US. The reverse of the card shows a photo of the German Church in Jerusalem. It is dated 16 February 1924. Note that this UPU card was printed with writing in French, English, German and Russian. The stamp is an 8 milliemes one from the set printed in England.
5703: Another post card sent from Jerusalem to Wurtemburg in Germany. The photo on reverse shows David's Tomb in Jerusalem. The card is dated 11 June 1925 and has three stamps with a total postage of 8 milliemes (one 4 M. and two 2 M). An interesting aspect of the card is that it was printed by the firm of Sarrafian Bros. in Beirut, SYRIA !.
5704: Here is a cover sent from Jerusalem to Paris, France.It was mailed on 20 Jan. 1925. Note the handwritten scribble on the right side...it could be the mail person who received it in Paris. Also in small numerals is the number handwritten 39 which could be the postman delivering the letter. Also note that the postal rate has now risen to 13 Milliemes for mail to Europe.
5705: Another cover sent from Tel Aviv, Palestine, this time to Ontario, Canada. Note the postal rate on the stamp is 15 Milliemes. This stamp and the preceding one are from the same set and have an identical picture of the Dome of the Rock, but with another value (15 instead of 13M).
5708: This cover was mailed from Jerusalem on 5 July 1926 and sent to Altdorf in Switzerland. The stamp is placed upside down and has a value of 13 Milliemes. It is not clear why the postmaster stamped the postmark twice when only one stamp was affixed.On the other hand it made for an attractive design with the wavy lines in between the two postmarks.
5709: An amusing cover; The envelope is from the Vacuum Oil Company (now Mobil) in Cairo, Egypt, and was sent to their office in Beyrouth, SYRIA !.On the reverse side the post mark is shown as being sent from Haifa, Palestine dated 3 January 1930. Also there is a stamp dated 4 January 1930 from Jerusalem, as well as two rubber stamps from the "office of the Manager of V.O.C" having received the cover on 6 January 1930. Pretty fast as a postal delivery goes, compared to nowadays ! There is a personal side to this since both my Father and my Uncle had worked with the company but am not sure whether each of them was in either of these places at the time. Actually my bet is more on my Uncle Mohieddine Kronfol who became the MENA Regional Manager of the Company in later years.
5710: This cover was sent from Jerusalem, Palestine to Trenton, New Jersey in the US in 1946. The sender was the Rabbi of the Hebron Yeshiva with an address in Jerusalem. There seems to have been some mistake as regards the addressee's whereabouts since the original one was scratched and a new address written in red pencil. The post office then printed a note at bottom left saying delivery was "delayed for directory service, No. 4".
5711:Here we have a cover with the name of a Palestinian company, C.C. Salameh, in Jerusalem who were sales agents of some American cars. The letter was addressed to the HUPP Motor Car Corp. in Detroit , Michigan. It was mailed on 7 December 1929.It has five 3 Milliemes stamps and each of them was franked by a separate post mark. A handwritten 39/40 is seen at the bottom right, presumably the sequence of sending that day from the post office. I had no idea of the Hupp company but found that they produced motor cars from 1909 to 1939 called the Hupmobile.
5712: Another envelope from Jerusalem to Detroit, Michigan was sent by the Palestinian sales agents whose company was now "Homsi and Salameh",to the Chrysler Corp. There are four stamps affixed with a value of 26 Milliemes .
5713 and 5714: A historical cover this.. it was air mailed to Detroit, Michigan in the US. It has three Israeli stamps , one of which has a tag. This was a registered mailing as can be seen from the label with, R. No. 411 from Bat Yam.On the reverse one can see the name of the sender and their address; Bat Yam, PALESTINE ! although by then the state of Israel had been created. There are a series of post marks on the reverse of the cover showing it went from Bat Yam on 23 June to Tel Aviv, then to New York on 4 July, then to Detroit on 4 July and finally to its destination on 6 July (Dinwood? Station in Michigan).
5716: This is an unused envelope from the Ministry of Telecon & Information Technology of the State of Palestine.It comes under the Palestine Authority with its address in Al-Bireh Municipality in Ramallah, Palestine.
5717: The last cover is of special personal interest to me. It was sent to me by one of my classmates, George Baramki, who graduated with me in 1957 from the American University in Beirut, Faculty of Agriculture. We had lost contact although I knew he had gone back to live in occupied Palestine. When we re-connected he learned that I collected stamps and sent me a few that were issued by the Palestinian Authority. He was working in Jerusalem, but had recently retired when he sent the envelope. Note that there is a sticker on the right side from the Israeli Postal Ministry instead of a postage stamp It is dated 13 March 2017. A couple of years after I got this George passed away so this was the last communication I had with my friend RIP.
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Fouad
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Thank you for sharing these wonderful collections! Historical!
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