Unusual Places - Eritrea

The State of Eritrea is located on the Red Sea in the northeast part of Africa.



Fossil evidence that 125,000 year old early hominids (Homo erectus and Homo Sapiens) lived in the area was found in 1995. It is certain that there have been organized communities in the area for the last 3500 years. As was he case with most of the African nations, however, Europeans felt an overwhelming desire to "provide governing assistance" to the native peoples of Eritrea. In this case it was the Italians who conquered Eritrea in 1890. The British expelled the Italians in 1941 and continued to administer the territory under a UN mandate until 1951. In 1951 Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia, but civil unrest and a 31 year civil war finally gained them their independence in 1991.





Eritrea's postal history is primarily tied to Italy - see the two examples above - but since declaring independence, Eritrea has been issuing stamps under its own name.

Very interesting.....

Very interesting to learn about this country and its stamps. Great post!

I have a great fondness for out of the way places. Keep them coming. Since we are in the region of Eritrea, don't forget D'jbouti (sp?)

I noticed Eritrea issued some stamps in 2010 (http://ns1.siteground146.com/~shaeb...&Itemid=41). I am very curious if there is any way to get them. Using google to search for dealers and stamp auctions on ebay and delcampe had 0 results. Any suggestion appreciated!

Hello aisaev, welcome.
= = = = =
Here is the stamps picture from the link above (in case anyone does not wish to click on that link):


From allafrica.com, an article on a 2011 Eritrea release:



Side note, when in hospital recently for tests I met a lady doctor from Eritrea. Cool.

Hard to find (maybe in French? or Italian?) modern stamps from Eritrea.

Got me interested in Eritrea now! All I knew before was that it was in Africa near Egypt somewhere and was an Italian colony at one point.

Here is a set from 2001 on Delcampe from a seller in Egypt

Note the sellers user name below the photo.
http://stamps.delcampe.net/page/lis...guage,E.html

He has stamps from 1996 to 2006. I haven't asked him if he has more not listed at the moment or access to any others. It would be cool to know someone or have someone in Eritrea who could actually post some letters or envelopes to a collector, thus getting real used stamps, which might be rare from a small poor (I think, may be wrong) country.

Found some more info on Eritrean Post Office on Fabio's Stamp Resources:

I posted some stamps from there in an auction on this board.. Italy and colonies.

I once roomed, many years ago with a man for Eritrea. A very decent fellow, and very proud of his country. My only connection to the place, I'm afraid, but a very good one. Hi pride in his homeland always struck me as something missing from a lot of people I meet.
As for stamps, here's my only example.



This camel from 1934. Looks pretty proud too.

I used to smoke camels in the 1960's.

Eritrea :

CV $650

Which end would you light?

The Delcampe contact does not have his connections with Eritrea anymore, so I am at a loss. Emailing their post office is like a black hole, nothing comes out.

The UPU just has stamps to 2003 listed on their WNS site at http://www.wnsstamps.ch/en/stamps?search[authority_id]=39&search[year]=&search[month]=&search[theme_id]=&search[freetext]=&search[order_by]=asc .

PostBeeld shows nice pics from 2004 but none in stock (at present) at http://www.postbeeld.com/en/fsc/sea...h_year+desc/ .

Worldstamps dot com lists year sets for sale (no pics) for up to 2009 at http://www.worldstamps.com/pricelis...p?country=79 but says no stamps issued in 2010 and only has a reserve button for 2011 so far (naturally). Lists how many stamps were issued for each year.

Side note: Eritrea has declared there have been illegal stamps issued (one example I found was a mini-sheet of the WWF with birds as noted in Scott 2009 catalogue.

Yes, I used all the sites you mentioned in my research, with the same negative results. I am curious if there's any way to get in touch with someone who's in Eritrea (local, or someone travelling to the region) and get if from them?

Maybe a travel site like Lonely Planet or such?
Or a photography site with pictures from that country perhaps?
Thanks for posting about your results.

I could corner the pretty doctor at the hospital here on her knowledge of the postal system but she looks like she knows Karate and has had much success at physical contact sports so I am somewhat hesitant. I think I pronounced her country incorrectly also at first so am quite up the creek I am afraid.