The postal authority (Department of Posts and Telegraphs, later P.T.T.P.) issued a first series of Postage Due stamps in spring 1923. In Palestine PDs had three principle uses for collecting fees:
| ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Images courtesy Thomas Schubert. | ||||||||||
The stamps show a simple but expedient design: panels in an outer frame show "Palestine" in English (top), Arab (right) and Hebrew (left).
The English "Postage Due" is positioned in an arch at the top; the Arab and Hebrew equivalents are on the bottom panel of the frame. The centre of the design shows a European numeral and (in reduced size) its Arabic equivalent.
The English and Hebrew designation of currency are arched on top of the large numeral, the Arab however is right at the bottom of the central panel. The print sheet consists of two panes of 10x10 fields separated by an empty gutter. Apparently the plates were constructed by duplication of original strips of five clichées. Five characteristic types, each distinct to a value, can be discerned. For the print two types of paper were used, both without any watermark: white paper with whitish gum (Bale Mandate type A; all values), and brown paper with darker (brownish) gum (type B; all values). One may conclude that there were two separate print runs using the paper at hand at the time. The sheets were perforated manually in line perforation (L11) which lead to very irregular stamp sizes and a plethora of perforation errors. | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
1m on yellowish paper (Bale D1B) in pair. Right stamp in variety 'missing N dot'. | ||||||||||
Image: Ebay. | ||||||||||
All clichées were hand-drawn causing a large number of plate varieties:
The stamps were issued on or before 1.04.1923. Although some catalogues, including Darlow, list April 1st, specialized catalogue Bale Mandate gives a rather vague date: "Issued perhaps before 1st April, 1923". | ||||||||||
Unfranked letter, sent poste restante to Jerusalem. There the address was changed to a PO Box. Arrival mark JERUSALEM / C / 24 OC / 24 and surcharge handstamp TO PAY. / / MILLIEMES (Sacher L6) with manuscript "10". The surcharge is covered with two postage due stamps: 8 Mils (SG D4) and 2 Mils (SG D2), both cancelled with datestamp JERUSALEM / A / 25 OC / 24. |
Image: Ebay. |
SG | Michel | Value | Issue | Colour | Type | Gumm | Watermk. | Perf. | Paper | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D 1 | P 1 | 1 m | 1.04.1923 | yellow-brown | T D1 | gumm. | -- | L 11 | A, B | ||||
D 2 | P 2 | 2 m | 1.04.1923 | blue-green | T D1 | gumm. | -- | L 11 | A, B | ||||
D 3 | P 3 | 4 m | 1.04.1923 | scarlet | T D1 | gumm. | -- | L 11 | A, B | ||||
D 4 | P 4 | 8 m | 1.04.1923 | mauve | T D1 | gumm. | -- | L 11 | A, B | ||||
D 5 | P 5 | 13 m | 1.04.1923 | steel-blue | T D1 | gumm. | -- | L 11 | A, B | ||||
[Created 9.08.2003, last revised 22.06.2005]
[www.zobbel.de – Dipl.-Bibl.(FH) Tobias Zywietz – all rights reserved]
Imprint/Impressum – Datenschutzerklärung/Privacy Policy