Strange Cilicie (Cilicia) Overprints

I don't know what made me by a lot of Cilicia overprints on ebay a few years ago, but I finally got around to looking at them. They have turned out to be very interesting. Nice details when scanned.

This one has the pyramids of Egypt, not so noticeable with the naked eye.



Here is a lighthouse and harbour.



This stamp has some sort of monument, and the handstamped overprint appears to have linseed oil, a topic covered previously by Rod.



This stamp has great details - a must for the collector of guns on stamps. The handstamped overprint appears double.

...and suprise... when I turned the stamps over, there are tiny handstamps in violet ink on the back of a few!

Anyboy know what these are?

R.B. Initials



R.B. Initials and a boxed "PA/VOIE/LE" or something like that ??

Pavoille was a dealer in Paris in the 1920's.

Here is an interesting link to expertizer's marks on Near Eastern stamps.

http://www.oneps.org/Marks/mark01.htm

There are three or four pages of pictures of marks. Pavoille's doesn't seem to be shown, so maybe you have something to contribute to them.

I suppose the R.B. could also be an owner's mark?

Amazing information CJD, thanks! I will contact the Ottoman Society.

R.B is probably Ruggero Benuzzi. (or Benussi, I'm not sure of the spelling)

I am very interested to what others think here BeeSee,
according to my catalogue, these look dodgy
but I am coming from a 1969 edition.
I cannot find your opts without the std Turkish war charity opts.

Gibbons advises opts may be found double on most issues

T.E.O. = "Territories ennemis occupes"

Cilicia: southeastern Asia Minor territory of Turkey; Currency: 40 paras = 1 piaster 1918-Oct. 20,
1921: occupied by French and British who overprinted stamps of France and Turkey; 1918, Feb. 10:
British military occupation stamps used in parts of Cilicia, 1919: control transferred to France,
1919, Mar. 4: No. 1, 2 paras red-lilac, first stamps used, stamps of Turkey overprinted "Cilicie,"
1919: first postage due stamps issued, French regime overprinted stamps of Turkey and France,
1920: France received territory as mandate from League of Nations, 1920, July 15: first air mail
stamp, 1921, Oct. 20: Cilicia returned to Turkey, 1923: Turkey expelled the French; see T.E.O.,
O.M.F.

"The Obelisk of the Hippodrome"

Just south of the Blue Mosque, there is an oval-shaped road. This was the site of the Hippodrome, where 100,000 spectators watched chariot races. At its center, three monuments offer clues as to the prominence of this stadium.

The Constantine Column, 105 feet in height, was erected by Constantine. It had been covered with bronze plates, but those were removed in 1204 by Venetians who sacked the city. Standing 55 feet high, the 3,500-year-old Obelisk of Theodosius was brought to Constantinople in 390 A.D. from the Temple of Karnak in Egypt. In addition to these two monuments, there is the Serpentine Column, commemorating the Greek victory over the Persians in 479 B.C. It was removed from Delphi during Constantine's reign. Unfortunately, the snake heads have been detached, one of which can be found in the Istanbul Archeological Museum.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/canmom/4180924719/

Looking at the expertisers marks

A. Yaremdji was a Istanbul dealer from at least 1885 to 1925.

Here is a stamp I passed on to TonyMacg from Jaipur
with the Yaremdji expertisers mark for yours and others interest.
Fascinating marks, but vandalism do you think?

First, they are on the back of the stamp, so they already get something of a pass from me. (I won't rule out a stamp with an unobtrusive cat# in pencil, for instance.)

Second, I think they are a bit of philatelic history. There really was no practical way to make a certificate that could be tied back to the stamp.

On the other hand, there were some pretty dodgy practices in the good ol' days, so the marks are unequal in their "guarantee" of quality, all things considered. It seems like some dealers might have thought of them more as advertising than expertizers' marks.

In the case of the more "creative" dealers, the marks might almost be thought of as an artist's signature.

C.

Hi rod222,

The stamps in BeeSee's original posting are SG 83, 80, 55 and D29 (the last one with no separate listing for the double overprint).

Thanks all - What a bunch of great information! That seems to be the norm for this forum.

Indeed.

Thanks Nigel, even after your ID, I find it hard to nail 'em
down from the 1970 catalogue, although I did miss badly
the postage due.
I would have laid london to a brick, the first one was an opt
forgery, but it seems Gibbons covers it by saying "numerous minor varieties" for mine, the "E" in TEO looks like a "B"
the serif is completely missing.

Gibbons must have done a complete overhaul of Cilicia
as the numbers have moved up 20 places, they have the
5 piatre as "black and greenish blue"

Thanks for the ID, they would have laid dormant otherwise

Stamps ahown by BeeSee are all genuine.
The 5 piastre with the pyramids shows the letters tff for the 3 "i"s in Cilicie.
Where Rod222 may be going wrong is using a Scott catalogue. The overprints shown in it are illustrations and not the genuine overprints.

Polearms! Now that's a cool topic.

Welcome to Stamp Community Forum, BobBradford!



I also wanted to clarify your statement. In the older Scott catalogs, they are illustrations as you have noted. But in the early-to-mid 2000s (I don't remember the exact catalog year), Scott changed all but one of the pics to show the actual stamps/overprints. The only exception is the airmail handstamp. While I have not checked the new pictures carefully, they should all be genuine overprints in the most recent catalogs.