Austrian Cancellation From Tirana / Tirane In Albania ??

This appears to be an Austrian Offices in the Levant stamp but neither Scott nor Netto seems to indicate a post office in Tirane so I'm curious as to anyone who has any knowledge of what this is...
Other than a nice used 2 sld Imperial postage stamp.




*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

This front page from an exhibit at the London 2020 International Stamp Exhibition may be enlightening:

http://www.london2020.co/wp-content.../02-0001.jpg

Hi WilderScot,

I'm afraid I don't believe this postmark.

This 2 soldi Austro-Hungarian Post Offices stamp is common mint but rare and expensive with a genuine postmark so it's a good candidate to have a forged postmark.

The main problem, as you say, is that Tirana is not known to have had an Austro-Hungarian post office. As well as the catalogues you've mentioned, it's not in the detailed list in Stanley Gibbons.

The format of the postmark with its double ring doesn't match the formats that I've seen used by any of the post offices on this issue.

Hello 22crows, thanks, yes that's one of the things that I wondered about. Scott lists the Albanian Austrian post offices, too, and Tirane is not one of them

@nigelc - Thanks! Yes, that's partly why I posted it. I've never seen one either - though I am no expert on the Austrian Offices in the Levant, just a neophyte. Making it more challenging being that many of the forgeries of rarer items are over 100 years old...

Thanks again for the kind response.

(not mine)

Vayoline that is so cool! It fits right in with a response I got from the kindly folks over at the Austrian Philatelic Society:

"I have asked the advice of members regarding your question and they confirm my initial thoughts.

This is an obvious and amateurish forgery. In mint condition the stamp is catalogued at €0.50 while a used example even with a common but genuine cancel is catalogued at €250.

During 1883-1890 when this stamp was current in Austrian Levant Tirana was part of Turkey and used Turkish stamps and postmarks. The cancellation on your stamp bears no resemblance to a Turkish cancellation. This rules out any suggestion that the stamp may have been uncancelled on arrival and then cancelled at Tirana.

There was no Lloyds or Consular post office at Tirana and the postmarks used by Austria-Hungary in the Levant are completely different.

The only connection I am aware of between Austria-Hungary and Tirana is ETAPPENPOSTAMT TIRANA used from October 1916 to October 1918 [an example of this is in our current auction lot 351 – bidding in the auction is only open to members] ."

So your postmark is one of those ETAPPENPOSTAMT ones mentioned in their kind communication. Thanks for showing it!

So to summarize the one I posted originally is a forgery and if anyone sees it's like you'll know it isn't real and the information from the Austrian Philatelic Society is interesting to boot.

Nice of them to provide such an informative & helpful answer. Good info to keep in mind as I'm about to work through my Austrian Offices stamps shortly.