The Stamps Of Turkey / Turkiye: On Steiner Pages.

Top frame, count about 22 strokes in from right hand edge,
between the two frame lines, underneath, you'll see a tiny line
joining the two frame lines.

This also goes towards the difficulty buying off ebay, etc, imagine trying to find genuine stamps, from the usual poor ebay pics.


Note: There are ten "Types" of the 20 para, each with their own ID
Yours are kinda smudgy in appearance, which increases dificulty

The Associated Catalogue references for the dedicated Turkey enthusiast, will set you back around $350



Die Briefmarken
1. Die Tughra-Marken
Author : The late, Mr. Andreas Birkin.

Yandex Translation may assist.

Superb! Thank you very much. So, the Mi1 A looks like forgery and Mi1 B may be either one. Difficult to say from scan only.

Next batch. These could be Scott J1, Michel Porto 1. Again, any opinion?



Sc J1 Mi P1 A



Sc J1 Mi P1 B



Sc J1 Mi P1 C



Sc J1 Mi P1 D

I think I will add the rest of the postage dues of set.

So, here come the stamps that could be Scott J2, Michel Porto 2. (I am using word 'could' as any forgeries there may be are not stamps with that stamp number.


ScJ2 MiP2 A



ScJ2 MiP2 B



ScJ2 MiP2 C

Here comes what could be Scott J3, Michel Porto 3.



ScJ3 MiP3 A



ScJ3 MiP3 B

And here is the last batch. Stamps that could be Scott J4, Michel Porto 4.



ScJ4 MiP4 A



ScJ4 MiP4 B



ScJ4 MiP4 C



ScJ4 MiP4 D



ScJ4 MiP4 E



ScJ4 MiP4 F

The Scott J1, Michel Pi D is an obvious forgery at least. :( What you likely want to be using as the catalog is the ISFILA catalog, any year. I'm not sure what you are using to create the images, some are coming out very dark...

Thank you very much. Based on rod222's post earlier I was already suspecting that. As I personally have none of these so far, I have no real idea about these first Ottoman postage and postage due stamps. Gaining now lots of experience and fast. Unfortunately I do not possess ISFILA catalogue. Hopefully I will get in the future one, but it must be an older one to be in the price range I would afford.

Hi kuikka,

If you're interested in the first toughra issues I would suggest that Andreas Birken's first Ottoman stamp handbook on these issues would be a great investment.

Perhaps Rod can share his comments on it as I think he has a number of Dr Birken's handbooks and has mentioned them on this thread.

It was priced at just EUR 15.00 although I don't know if it is still only sale.

I was sad to see that Dr Birken had died suddenly back in 2019. :(

kuikka: In your last batch, it seems you have a few pink-red Scott 5 (Mi 4).

Agreed, the "2" of 20 paras, is astonishingly poor.

Posting a lot of stamps gives me overload,
and dilutes my enthusiasm.
Better to take Nigel's advice and source Mr Birken's monographs, and have them translated.

Turkey : Counterfeits.
The Tughra Stamps.

Bib: Passer Page 22.

The rough look of the stamps and the fact that they are made in lithographic print have always lured counterfeiters. The first issue of Turkish stamps has become ever rarer and more expensive, and many collectors know so little about them that it is no wonder that many forgeries are found in the collections.

The counterfeits are either very clumsy and easily recognizable even by inexperienced collectors, or very well done; but that does not cause much trouble, because the counterfeiters were not knowledgeable enough to create perfect imitations. The real stamps are printed on soft, thin paper, while counterfeits are on hard, shiny paper.

The thin paper has often meant that the stamps were gummed on the front and got a false stamp impression on the back. These fakes were not made in Turkey. The most dangerous ones are on thick paper and far better executed, although the paper quality should immediately make an expert suspicious.

The colours of the different denominations are more or less correct, but in almost all forgeries the control borders are poorly or rarely reproduced. A distinguishing feature is the reproduction of the value number, which is hardly ever correct. All forgeries can be recognized by different mistakes of drawing and inscription.




Supports my opinion on most forgeries of the world
For me, it is the first place I look.

Apologies for overloading. I will give some break here and not add anything new at least for some time. If you are willing to go through those stamps already posted at the speed comfortable to you, that is highly appreciated. The stamps shown are all that there are of this first issue.

Perf12, can you be more specific and identify which ones. I know very little about these stamps.