TURKEY, Random Notes, 1926, G. A. Higlett, Harris Publications Limited

Section II

1909. Jaffa Overprint.

In the Yvert & Tellier catalogue there is listed a series of stamps under the Nos. 139 to 145, consisting of six values of the 1908 issue, stated to be overprinted in commemoration of the accession of the Sultan. They are priced at from 40 to 500 francs each.

This overprint was never sanctioned by the Constantinople authorities. It was a purely local speculative issue, made for getting money out of collectors. To achieve this aim, and secure admission to the catalogues, so as to create a market for the stamps, a good number of letters were passed through the post bearing these overprinted stamps. It was probably done by, or in connivance with, local postal officials.

Because of its high catalogue quotations, this series has also been imitated by the forger, and such imitations are to be found printed also on other issues than the correct one.

As published in Stamp-Collector’s Magazine (Vol. V) August 1^st, 1867

From Le Timbre Poste

To some of our readers the above title will probably seem an enigma. They may search, perhaps in vain, for the hand of which we speak. Yet it is there, though different in appearance from those we know. It is, in fact, the curious design occupying the centre of each of these stamps – its name ‘Thougra.’

The ‘Thougra’ is the signature of his majesty the Sultan, ordinarily written in black, sometimes in red, and frequently in letters of gold, and is found upon coins, passports, &c., as well as upon the stamps. The first sultans used to make rough impressions, with the five fingers of one hand, at the foot of their decrees, and Mahomet II placed his fingers, wet with blood on the columns of Saint Sophia, at the capture of Constantinople in 1453. Of these early finger seals, and of the impressions of the conqueror's fingers on the mosques, the arabesque pattern in the centre of the stamp is representative.