TURKEY / Ottoman Empire
A brief listing of telegraph seals was included in William T. McDonald's book "Revenue Stamps of Turkey".
Those after 1915 were all censor's seals and it seems that it was impossible to send a telegram in or from Turkey
without its being checked by the censors for much of the twenty years following 1915.
In the 1880s seals in Turkish and French were used on folding forms with a flap and in the 1890s these seem
to have become self-adhesive requiring no additional seal. Procedure between 1894 and 1914 is not yet known.
| Updates. The above was written by Steve Hiscocks. It seems sensible to include seals of the Ottoman Empire under this heading, in line with what I have done with Austria and Russia. In 1928 the Latin Alphabet replaced the Ottoman Turkish. Re-ordered using 'RH' (Revised Hiscocks) numbers. No pricing as yet. |
At the beginning of the Electric Telegraph era there was still quite a lot of the Ottoman Empire left. Much of it was heavily influenced by France.
By 1914 it was largely confined to Turkey.
| The Ottoman Empire apparently had no need of a coat of arms until a request from Hampton Court in 1882 prompted them to design one. Turkey commonly uses the star and crescent as an emblem ☪ At the top is the tughra (calligraphic monogram) of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The two flags were those of the Islamic Caliph in green (with 3 crescents) and the Ottoman Dynasty in red. |
Arabic numbers 0 to 9
When using cancels on telegrams to get the dates, there are some complications.
From 1840 to 1926 the Ottoman Empire used the Rumi calendar.
After converting the date from Arabic, add 584 years to get the Gregorian (Western) date.
After 1926, Gregorian dates were used, though sometimes dropping the first '1'.
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| #1 (described as Turkey) Pink ? 37.6mm | 44mm (listed as #3 of Turkey, pale lilac) | 1875 ? (listed as #1 of Egypt, light blue) |
My Note: #1 looks the same as the one listed as #1 of Egypt (1875).
| RH # | Type. | was | Description | Mint | Used | On telegram |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RH1 | 1 | #3 | Die-cut. Black on pale lilac / pink. | - | - | - |
| RH2 | 1 | Egypt #1 | 1875? Die-cut. Black on pale light blue. | - | - | - |
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| #2 1882, 38mm | #3 1886, 34mm | #4 1889-1902, 26mm This used in Mont Athos, Greece but see below. |
| RH # | Type. | was | Description | Mint | Used | On telegram |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RH3 | 2 | #1 | 1882 Imperf. Black on white. | - | - | - |
| RH4 | 3 | #2 | 1886 Imperf. Black on white. | - | - | - |
| RH5 | 4 | - | 1889-1902 Part-perf. Black on pink. | - | - | - |
This was used in Piraeus (written Pyrei, main port of Athens) in 1902. The perforated flap appears to be the source of #4 above. (shown half size)
The telegram is headed with Imperial Administration of Posts and Telegraphs in French and Ottoman Turkish.
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| 1900 (dated ١٣١٦ by Rumi calendar), 47mm, McDonald #13a | 1902 (dated ١٣١٨ by Rumi calendar) |
I had originally thought that these were seals due to the lack of any apparent face value.
I learned however from Eric Lerner that these are actually Patent Medicine Revenues. I guess they were paid for by the sheet.
Istanbul (اسطنبول) Army Censor ?
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| #5 1914, 48mm | #6 44.9mm | #7 48.1mm |
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| #8 1915, 40mm (43 scallops) | #9 41.1mm (46 scallops) small star | #10 41.5mm (36 scallops) larger star |
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| #11 44mm (29 scallops) | #12 34.4mm an etiquette ? I know nothing about this. |
There are other differences apart from the scallops and colour however:
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| Type #9. | Type #10. | Type #11. | Type #10. | Type #11. |
| The left of the central script is slightly different between all three. | The right side is similar for the reds, but aligns differently to the outer script for the green. | |||
The colours are likely to signify the Islamic Caliph with green and the Ottoman Dynasty with red.
| RH # | Type. | was | Description | Mint | Used | On telegram |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RH6 | 5 | #4 | 1914 Rough Perf. Red on white. | - | - | - |
| RH7 | 6 | #5 | Perf. 11, Red on white. | - | - | - |
| RH8 | 7 | #6 | Perf. 11½, Red on white. | - | - | - |
| RH9 | 8 | #7 | 1915 Scalloped (43). Red on white. | - | - | - |
| RH10 | 9 | #8 | Scalloped (46). Red (shades) on white. small star. | - | - | - |
| RH11 | 10 | - | 1917 Scalloped (36). Red on white. large star | - | - | - |
| RH12 | 11 | #9 | Scalloped (29). Green on white. | - | - | - |
| RH13 | 12 | - | Scalloped. Red on white. Script only. | - | - | - |
Hiscocks added the following note:
| Note. The dimensions of #s 7-9 [now H9-H12] above are those of the actual seals since the indefinite limits of the design make my normal practice of measuring the width of the design difficult. |
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| #13 1914-15 | #14 1915, 76mm |
| RH # | Type. | was | Description | Mint | Used | On telegram |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RH14 | 13 | #12 | 1914-5 Scalloped (36). Red on white. | - | - | - |
| RH15 | 14 | #16 | 1915, Perf. / imperf. ? Black on white. | - | - | - |
Hiscocks added the following note:
| Note. The large seal, #16[now #14] , is reported by McDonald as a censor's seal used in 1915 on telegrams sent to territories and provinces in the Ottoman Empire. It is black on white. A scan of a better example is needed. |
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| #15 1923-28, 31mm (stamp width) | #16 1923-25, 33.5mm (stamp width) |
#17 27.5mm |
The difference between #15 and #16 is probably easiest to see in the '99's between the two 'uprights'
Latin script from 1928.
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| #18 1928? 22.7mm Star & Crescent only. | #19 1929 19.3mm across text. Perf. 12 | #20 1939-48, 41.8mm | #21 1934, 28mm |
Railway
The Turkish railway network came under State control in 1927 and was subsequently
called the TCDD (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları)
| RH # | Type. | was | Description | Mint | Used | On telegram |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RH24 | 23 | - | 1927? CCDD, Red on white. | - | - | - |
If anyone can provide scans to help with this, I am happy to give appropriate credit.
