Turkey Bisect On Cover

Good morning
another philatelic curiosity to catalog that I can't find, thanks a lot for the answers

"Saint 40 Albanie" : french traduction for "Santi Quaranta", italian name of Saranda (a seaside resort in Albania )

What are you looking for that you can't find?

Turkey stamp is likely Scott #68. They don't list bisects. There is a note after #77 describing a different kind of bisect...

Nice item!

Good morning
I'm trying to understand, what path the letter made Simone

Can't tell you that - need more expertise than I can offer!

All I can say, with some level of certainty, assuming it is all genuine, is that it originated somewhere in the Ottoman Empire. vayolene's comment - about an Albanian resort - would make sense & confirm that.

The top right cancel on the back tells us that at some point, it went through an Austrian post office. Could've been one in broad Levant area, or Austria?

Other's with more postmark knowledge will have to fill in the blanks from there...

An Austrian Levant post office was located in Santi Quaranta.


And Sarandoz (first cancel on reverse) is the turkish name of Saranda

Is it possible that the departure is from Thrace?

The postmark on the bisect is from Port Lagos (Lagos) in Greece.

I guess the route may have been:

- Port Lagos (Greece)

- Bar (Montenegro)

- Saranda (Austrian P.O.)

- Saranda (Turkish P.O.)

Departure (Dec.inverted inside) looks like Romania ? (Poate lag) is in romanian.Destination:Santi Quaranta confirmed by latin script on the front.
Arrival Santi Quaranta _Date ? Why is the purple arrival cancel under the flap ?

Hi perf12,

It's Turkish bilingual postmark from Port Lagos and the French part at the bottom reads "PORTE.LAG".

I hadn't noticed till now that the French Month slug had been reversed.

I guess the top flap may have been removed and replaced as the Austrian postmark also looks disturbed.

Hi Nigel,
"Porte-Lag" cannot be a french inscription ("porte" is french for "door",not "port")
A French Levant post office was located in Port-Lagos,and its name is always written "Port-Lagos"

Hi Perf12,

The "French" inscriptions on Turkish bilingual postmarks are often not the standard French versions of a place name.

Sometimes they give a transliteration of a Turkish or Bulgarian name sounding out the word as though it were in French (or perhaps some Turkish official's view of how it should be spelt.)

Lagos used to have various versions of its name including Port Lagos, Porto-Lago, Porto Lagos etc.

Turkish and Bulgarian called the town Karagach (or Karaaghadj etc.)

In this postmark at the top it says, "Karaaghadj" in Turkish.

In around 1910 a new version of the postmark came into use with "PORT LAGOS" at the bottom.

Hi Perf12,

That's a lovely 25 centimes stamp used in Port Lagos!

Very nice indeed.

galinos stamp with porte lag:
https://www.stampcircuit.com/stamp-...ation-thrace

Simone -

You're now witnessing an intense academic discussion between Galileo Galilei & Issac Newton. Very rare.

I'd normally go w/Nigel...but perf12 is putting up a heck of a fight!

The only thing I can add to this: NIgel's comments about the bilingual postmarks are spot on. The Ottoman 'officials' who created these were, at best, sounding them out & spelling them accordingly.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a ratty old envelope w/a horrible looking stain on the front. But the discussion is priceless!!