Ottoman Empire Cut In The Middle Stamps - Crete

Any history about these ?

Hi Manosp,

Awesome document!

It is some kind of contract/agreement. Such that it required a 'payment' which is taken care of with the stamp. The stamp in the 1st picture is a revenue stamp - I assume the 2nd one is as well, but cannot see clearly enough with the picture.

The 'cut-in-the-middle' stamp is called a 'bisect' - and this method was used to pay 1/2 of the amount of the stamp. (The denomination of the stamp in picture #1 is 10, so a bisected stamp would be worth 5 in payment for whatever purpose was intended.

Great tughra on the top of page 2 - is it hand-drawn or printed on the document as some kind of stationery?

We have some great experts in Crete & old documents who will add more info in short order...

hi: The first is a 1890 Ottoman revenue stamp (Commerce usage),The second is a 1879 revenue
Ottoman (Commerce) with a Crete overprint on the top.So the document is from Crete.

some examples:

thanks mdroth and perf12 !

mdroth as you are from Turkey , have you ever heard about the ottoman flowers stamps ? They are the most beautiful stamps I have ever seen ! I will try to convince that guy to photo shoot them and upload them after !

Very familiar with all Ottoman stamps, but can't say the term 'flowers' rings any bells. Post some pictures or give catalog numbers so we know what stamps you're talking about...

Hello manosp,

There's a 1997 booklet by G. Xanthakis, The Flora of the Ottoman Empire : revenue stamps found on the island of Crete, 1830-1897 which claims to identify some very nice floral designs as revenue stamps of some kind.

Are these the stamps which you are referring to?

I have a copy of the booklet somewhere but I can't lay my hands on it and I must admit that I don't remember much about this.

As far as I'm aware they were not discussed in Rienk Feenstra's 2001 Crete handbook.

Hello Nigel
That what I talk about, the florals stamps.