Stamps And Items From "Dead" Countries And Entities

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The Aegean island of Samos successfully rebelled against Ottoman rule shortly before the First Balkan War, in September 1912.

Though the revolutionary government on Samos wished to become part of Greece, this did not happen until late 1914. In the meantime, the Samian government issued several sets of stamps. The first, issued on 14 November 1912, was a set of three depicting a map of Samos with the inscription "Provisional Post Office of Samos". The second, depicting Hermes, was printed by Stangel & Co. and released in two batches. The first batch, issued on 26 November, consisted of five values (see image below). The second batch, issued on 22 December, was overprinted with Hellas in boldface type. It included the values from the first batch plus a 1 drachma value. This would be known as the "Large Hellas" overprint to distinguish it from a second, thinner overprint applied in February 1914 (the "Thin Hellas"). A third set, the "castles" issue, was released on 4 January 1913 commemorated both an 1824 Greek victory over the Ottoman Empire at Gerontas Bay and the 1912 vote for union with Greece.

All issues were replaced by the Hellenic Diokenesis; and Campaign stamps when Greece assumed control of Samos. In December 1914 some of the Hermes and "castles" stamps were re-issued as charity stamps, with the overprint "General Administration of Samos".

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Nice, Bobby de la rue! Is this beautiful stamp yours?

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Good heavens no! When it sold in 2012 the hammer price was A$18000

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These imperfs are pure beauties...

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When I was younger I really didn't like imperf stamps.

But now......

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I recently started collecting the province issues (before joining the confederation)...started with Prince Edward Island, will post scans once they arrive.

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The island of Icaria (Ikaria) remained part of the Ottoman Empire until 17 July 1912, when the Icarians expelled the Turkish garrison and thereby achieved independence.

On 18 July 1912, the Free State of Icaria (Elefthera Politía Ikarias) was declared. The neighboring islands of Fournoi Korseon were also liberated and became part of the Free State. Ioannis Malachias was the first and only president of the Free State of Icaria.

For five months, it remained an independent country, with its own government, armed forces, national flag, coat of arms, postage stamps, and national anthem. On 4 November 1912, after a delay due to the Balkan Wars, Icaria officially became part of the Kingdom of Greece. The Ottoman Empire recognized Greece's annexation of Icaria and the other Aegean islands in the Treaty of London (1913).

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You're welcome, LaoPhil! I hope more people here will contribute... that'd be nice someone share a German state stamp...

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Prior to the German unification of 1871, individual German states and entities started to release their own stamps, Bavaria first on November 1, 1849, with the one kreuzer black. After the unification, Bavaria (and Württemberg) retained their postal authority to continue producing stamps until March 31, 1920.

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Saxony #1 was printed in sheets of 20 (5 by 4). Eight printings yielded a total of 25,000 sheets, for a total of 500,000 stamps.

Saxony #1 is an expensive stamp. It is rare, in part due to the relatively low quantity issued, but also because three pfennig was the newspaper rate! Many stamps were destroyed as a result of them being used to seal newspaper wrappers.

You could therefore make an argument for the first true postage stamp issued was one of the ones issued later. Another good argument for chosing one of those is that they are significantly cheaper.

The unsold copies of #1, 36,882 in all, were returned to Leipzig and officially burned on December 10, 1851.

It is estimated that 3 - 4,000 copies of #1 exist today. However, many have been repaired and this stamp has been extensively falsified, perhaps most notably by Francois Fournier.

The first stamp of Saxony is famous enough to have earned the nick-name "Sachsen-Dreier", something like the "Saxony Three'er" in English.

From January 1, 1869 Saxony joined the North German Confederation, and therefore seized to issue stamps of their own.

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Saxony has a long history as a duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire (the Electorate of Saxony), and finally as a kingdom (the Kingdom of Saxony). In 1918, after Germany's defeat in World War I, its monarchy was overthrown and a republican form of government was established under the current name. The state was broken up into smaller units during communist rule (1949–1989), but was re-established on 3 October 1990 on the reunification of East and West Germany.