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OFFICIAL HOME PAGE OF STAMPS ON STAMPS COLLECTORS CLUB (SOSCC) FOUNDED 1954 AMERICAN TOPICAL ASSOCIATION UNIT AMERICAN PHILATELIC SOCIETY AFFILIATE NO. 127 |
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The information on this site was last updated on 02.12.2023 |
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On the 28th
of March 2023, the post of Israel issued a series of stamps on international
mail from the Land of Israel. An interesting combination of history of the
post, geopolitics, transportation, view of Israel and other relates elements.
It is more about mail in the Middle East - an area that was a remote desert
than on mail from the Land of Israel itself, but nevertheless, it is a very
interesting stamps series and most important it is a Stamps
on Stamps series.
International
mail from the Land of Israel, Issued: 28.3.2023 Immediately
after the publication of the stamps and after a quick identification of the
stamps, a discussion began among the members of the club regarding the design
of the stamps and the choice, which at first glance seems unnatural, of the
envelopes that are not actually mailed from the Land
of Israel. I sent
the questions from our discussion to the designer of the stamp Mr. Zvika Roitman, who directed the
questions to Israel Post. Within few days, I received an in-depth,
comprehensive answer from Mr. Moshe Rimer who is
the treasurer of the collection of the late Alexander Zvi,
kept in the Alexander Museum of Postal and Stamp History in Tel Aviv. https://www.eretzmuseum.org.il/e/122/ Mr. Rimer was also kind enough to send me copies of the
envelopes used to design the stamps and they are shown
here courtesy of the Alexander Collection. Here is a
free translation of Mr. Rimer's extensive answer to
the questions that came up in the discussion among the club members as well
as additional information about the thoughts behind the spectacular design of
the stamps in the series. International
mail from the Land of Israel In the
period to which the first stamp in the series refers, the one dealing with
the development of maritime mail relations, the Land of Israel was nothing
more than a remote and insignificant province of the vast Ottoman Empire.
Even during the British Mandate period, in which the other two stamps in the
series are anchored, the Land of Israel (despite its
official definition as a separate entity called Palestine) was part of a much
larger territorial unit that stretched from Egypt in the west, through
Mesopotamia to India and Australia in the Far East. The development of
international postal relations was made out of a
system of considerations that went beyond the limits of the limited Land of
Israel, and was largely derived from the imperial system of considerations of
Great Britain. The
choice of the envelopes that were incorporated into
the stamps of the series was made with deep thought on the way in which they
illustrate the position of the Land of Israel as an international crossroads.
With the exception of the first envelope, which was sent
from Jerusalem, the two envelopes from the British era were not sent from the
Land of Israel, nor were they sent to the Land of Israel as a final address,
but passed through the Land of Israel as part of the global routing system.
The envelopes were carefully selected from the huge
variety kept in the collection of the late Alexander Zvi,
which was deposited by him in the Alexander Museum of Postal History and
Stamps in Tel Aviv. Also the landscape postcards
integrated into the design of the stamps, which describe the points of the
settlement in which the international postal services operated, originating
from the collection of the late Alexander Zvi. ********************* Sea mail
Envelope from Jerusalem to France (1853) The
publication is made with the permission of the collection of the late
Alexander Zvi, kept in the Alexander Museum of Postal and Stamp History in Tel
Aviv The first
stamp in the series focuses on the mid-fifties of the nineteenth century, a
period in which the shipping companies of Austria, France and Russia began to
visit the ports of Israel as part of the regular shipping lines that left the
mother countries and sailed to the eastern Mediterranean. This is in the
pre-stamp era, so the folded letter chosen for presentation on the Israeli
stamp has no postage stamps. The folded letter was sent on August 14, 1853 at
the French post office in Jerusalem, and was transferred to the French post
office in Jaffa, where it was stamped The rare
stamp of this post office. The letter was routed through
the port of Beirut and arrived at the port of Marseille in France on
September 6, 1853. In
addition, a stamp of the Austrian Post Office in Jaffa was
incorporated into the stamp's back and a photo of the Russian mail
ship "Chihachov" which ran aground on the
Jaffa coast was incorporated into the center of the stamp. ********************* Overland mail
Envelope from the First Overland Mail Bagdad – Haifa
(1923) The
publication is made with the permission of the collection of the late
Alexander Zvi, kept in the Alexander Museum of Postal and Stamp History in Tel
Aviv
The
second stamp deals with the development of a unique land mail line, initiated
by the brothers Norman and Gerald Nairn. The two
brothers arrived in Israel as part of the British army in the First World
War, and decided to settle there. They were engaged in the development of
land transportation lines based on cars, which were a modern and less known
means of transportation at that time. In 1921 they
established a daily mail, cargo and passenger transport service from Haifa to
Beirut, and in light of the success of the service they decided to expand it
and establish a transportation line that would cross the arid and dangerous
Syrian desert, and lead from Haifa (the terminus of the railway line from
Egypt) through Beirut and Damascus to Baghdad (the terminus of lines the
shipping that led along the rivers of Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf to
India). The development of the transportation line involved a long series
of difficulties of various kinds, starting with the signing of political
agreements between the authorities of the British Mandate (which controlled
the Land of Israel and Iraq) and between the authorities of the French
Mandate (which controlled Lebanon and Syria), through the signing of
agreements with the Bedouin tribes who collected patronage fees in the
territories of the Syrian desert, And including technical problems of
navigation and supplies along the long deserted road. On August
30, 1923, a special trip left Baghdad for Haifa that was intended
to be used as proof of the applicability of the continental mail line
to the postal authorities, and based on the success of this trip, the
official contract was signed on October 18, 1923 between the British Post
Office and the company of the Nairn brothers.
Letters from this trip are extremely rare, and for
the purpose of presentation on the Israeli stamp, a registered letter sent on
this test trip from Baghdad to Haifa, and intended for an address in England,
was chosen. Two Iraqi stamps with a total face value of 9 Annas
were affixed to the envelope (3 Annas for sending a
regular letter from Iraq to England + 3 Annas for
the registration fee of the letter + 3 Annas for
the additional payment for the special service of the mainland mail). I repeat
and emphasize that the letter was not sent from Iraq
to Israel, but from Iraq to Britain, and the Land of Israel was only a
transit station that served as the terminus of the overland mail Haifa -
Baghdad. The complete line of mail delivery included
departure from Baghdad by land mail to Haifa, loading the mail on the railway
line to Egypt, and from there by ship on one of the routes to Southern Europe
(mostly France or Italy), from there by train to the ports of the Lemanche Canal, from there by ferry to Britain and from
there by train to London. ********************* Air mail
Envelope from the First Flight Cyprus to India (1932) The
publication is made with the permission of the collection of the late
Alexander Zvi, kept in the Alexander Museum of Postal and Stamp History in Tel
Aviv
The
development of air traffic lines in the 1920s and 1930s involved very
difficult problems, both technical problems that arose from the limited
capabilities of the planes in those days and political problems that arose
from the need to sign appropriate agreements with the various political authorities
through which the air route passed. The location of the Land of Israel placed
it as a key point on the long way from Britain to the Far East, and
especially to India and Australia. Over the years, various sites in the Land
of Israel, such as Gaza, Lod, Haifa and Tiberias, have been used as
transition points for the landing and routing of cargo and passengers. On the
Israeli stamp, it was decided to show as an example
one of the routes along the line between Great Britain and India, the one
that connected Cyprus and Tiberias. This line
operated for a short period only, and was canceled
due to lack of economic viability. There are very few items of mail sent in
this line, and one of them is preserved in the
Alexander collection and is shown on the Israeli stamp. It is important to
remember that the modern concept that we are used to today, according to
which a passenger on an airline from Britain to India boards a plane in
London and does not get up from his seat until he lands in Mumbai or New Delhi,
did not exist in the early 1930s. The air route from Great Britain to India
included a complex mix of a variety of means of transportation (trains, ships
and planes) which was constantly changing, while being influenced by
political decisions, technological development, and even weather conditions.
The full route was made up of sections, some of
which were made by air, such as the one made by seaplane from Cyprus to Tiberias.
The Short S.8 Calcutta airship left Limassol and landed in the
Sea of Galilee near Tiberias. The
letter appearing on the stamp was sent from Cyprus
to Cairo, Egypt. The sender had the option of choosing the sea route, and sending
the letter by ship from Cyprus to Alexandria and from there to Cairo. He
preferred to send it by the new air route that had just
been inaugurated, so the letter was flown to Tiberias,
from there it was transported by car to Haifa, and continued by train to
Alexandria and from there to Cairo. The air route (including the land part of
it) was faster than sailing by ship, and justified the extra payment.
The back of Envelope from the First Flight Cyprus to
India The row of stamps stamped on the back of the letter document The
publication is made with the permission of the collection of the late
Alexander Zvi, kept in the Alexander Museum of Postal and Stamp History in Tel
Aviv I am
attaching the questions forwarded by the club members and Mr. Rimmer's answers: Q: Why
was a letter sent from Iraq to Israel (land mail) chosen instead of a letter
sent from Israel on the stamp intended to show the international mail from
the Land of Israel? A: Because this is an envelope that participated in the
proof-of-capacity campaign that formed the infrastructure for the
establishment of the overland mail on the Baghdad-Haifa line. Q: Why
does the airmail stamp indicate the first flight from Cyprus to India by
Imperial Airways in 1932? A: This
is an example of a route change within the full line from the UK to India.
This is a relatively rare route that operated for a
short time and landed in an unusual site on the Sea of Galilee in front of Tiberias. The inauguration of this line shifted the
landing point in Israel from Haifa to Tiberias. Q: The
same stamp shows a letter originating in Cyprus but destined for Egypt (air mail), is there a reason for this? A: The
letter that was sorted in Tiberias
and transported to Egypt illustrates the position of the Land of
Israel as a mail routing point along the route. The sea
mail letter describes a letter that left the Land of Israel, the land mail
letter shows a letter that passed through the Land of Israel without local
handling, and the air mail completes the picture with an example of a mail
item in transit that was handled and sorted through the Land of Israel as
part of an international route. Q: Why were stamps used by the Hebrew settlement in the Land of Israel
not incorporated into the design? A: I
repeat and emphasize that the purpose was to illustrate the historical role
of the Land of Israel as a land of transit, and therefore there was no place
to select letters that originated in the Land of Israel or were destined for
the Land of Israel and were fined with local postage
stamps. This is the reason why there is no representation of the stamps of
Palestine (AI) in the envelopes. By the way, envelopes originating from the
Land of Israel are also very rare in the land mail letters, and most of the
mail that was handled by the land mail was part of
international traffic that only passed through the Land of Israel. Summery Since
ancient times, and throughout recorded history, the Land of Israel has been a
focal point for extensive international movement between the regional and
world powers. The trade caravans between Mesopotamia and Egypt in the ancient
East, the Nabatean caravans that carried valuable goods to the Roman Empire,
the extensive trade from the Far East during the Crusader period, and the oil
lines from Iraq to Haifa during the British period - all these reached the
ports of the Land of Israel and from there to Europe. The Arab boycott of the
State of Israel interrupted this historical sequence, but did not cancel the
natural status of the Land of Israel as a crossroads between the three
continents of the ancient world. The peace agreements that
have been signed in recent years reveal the historical status of the Land of
Israel, and it suffices to examine the volume of goods unloaded in recent
years at the port of Haifa and sent through them in hundreds of trucks to the
border crossings to Jordan and from there to the rest of the Arab world. The series of stamps denoting the international mail from the
Land of Israel is intended to illustrate the historical role of the Land of
Israel, and the items from the past that illustrate this reflect hope for a
future of peace, in which the Land of Israel will return to its natural
position as a crossroads of international trade and roads.
Stay
well, Rammy |
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Stamps on stamps The topic
of stamps on stamps is one of the most diverse of all topicals.
Ever since Sir Rowland Hill first advocated the use of prepaid pieces of
paper to be adhered to letters to expedite their delivery, the postage stamp
has fascinated people. It should come as no surprise, then, that the postage
stamp is being used as a stamp motif, and that
topical collecting of stamps on stamps is popular. The topic of stamps on
stamps is an interesting one in that it covers many different areas and
avenues while still being true to the stamp topic. Michael
Merritt |
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