Stamp Story, No. 23 A PRICE WAR

Press, Volume C, Issue 29518, 20 May 1961, Page 8

Stamp Story, No. 23 A PRICE WAR

WHO EVER hear of a ’ Government selling postage stamps at a discount to encourage business? Yet that is exactly what happened in Turkey early this century. * The idea was to induce commercial firms to use the Turkish Post Offices in preference to those established in Turkey—under agreement known as “capitulations”—by other European powers, including Britain, Germany, Austria, France and Russia. Business men buying large quantities of stamps were offered a discount of 20 per cent, on the face value. A special overprint was applied to stamps sold in this way, and this occurs on certain values issued in 1906 and 1908. It took the form of the Arabic character which can be seen in the illustration just above the value panels. This denotes the letter B, standing for “behie,” meaning discount.

In the case of the 1913 issue, the idea was repeated, but this time the overprint was a small star.

In 1914, the "capitulations” were abolished. All the foreign post offices closed down, and it was no longer necessary to offer a discount. These foreign post offices,

which form an interesting study for the postal historian, had their origin at a time when the postal service of the old Turkish Empire was still fairly primitive. They used the stamps of their respective countries, sometimes with a special overprint usually consisting of the word "Levant.” British stamps with this overprint appeared in 1921 for use during the British occupation.— (Central Press Services, Ltd. All rights reserved).