 | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (February 2015)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Libya . Libya is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west.
The first stamps used in Libya were the stamps of the Ottoman Empire.
The area which is now Libya was originally a vilayet of the Ottoman Empire which was ceded to Italy in 1912 [1] and became an Italian colony.
Stamps of Italy were issued from 1912 overprinted Libia and later Italian colonial issues were issued specifically for Libya. The first definitives were issued in 1921, inscribed Libia Colonie Italiane. [2] [3] From 1924 to 1934 Tripolitania and Cyrenaica also had their own stamps before being unified in 1934, with Fezzan, as the Italian colony of Libya. All stamps of colonial Libya were printed at the Italian Government Printing Works. [2]
Italian colonial issues continued until 1943 when Italian Libya was overrun by the British Army during the Second World War.
British stamps overprinted M.E.F. (Middle East Forces) were used from 1943 to 1948 after the area was captured by the British during World War II. From 1 July 1948 stamps overprinted B.M.A. TRIPOLITANIA were used. Tripolitania only, used stamps marked B.A. TRIPOLITANIA from 6 February 1950 to December 1951. [1]
Fezzan and Ghadames was a territory in the southern part of the former Italian colony of Libya controlled by the French from 1943 until Libyan independence in 1951. It was part of the Allied administration of Libya.
Cyrenaica enjoyed a brief period of internal autonomy in 1949-51 when the British authorities recognised Amir Mohammed Idris Al-Senussi as Emir of Cyrenaica. Definitive and postage due stamps were issued in 1950. [4] [5]
On 24 December 1951 Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan were unified as the Kingdom of Libya.
The first stamps of the kingdom of Libya were issued on 24 December 1951 and were overprinted stamps of Cyrenaica. Three different types of overprint in three currencies were issued, for the three provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan, reflecting the different currencies still in use in the three zones formerly administered by the Allies.
The first stamps inscribed Kingdom of Libya were issued on 15 April 1952. A variety of inscriptions were used until 1969 including Libye, Libya, Libia and United Kingdom of Libia or Libya. [6] [7]
In 1969 King Idris I was deposed in a military coup and stamps including the word Kingdom were altered in a variety of ways to delete that word. Stamps were first issued marked L.A.R. then LAR and from the 1970s began to be inscribed Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya with equivalent wording in Arabic. [6]
This is an overview of the postage stamps and postal history of Australia.
Fezzan is the southwestern region of modern Libya. It is largely desert, but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys (wadis) in the north, where oases enable ancient towns and villages to survive deep in the otherwise inhospitable Sahara Desert. The term originally applied to the land beyond the coastal strip of Africa proconsularis, including the Nafusa and extending west of modern Libya over Ouargla and Illizi. As these Berber areas came to be associated with the regions of Tripoli, Cirta or Algiers, the name was increasingly applied to the arid areas south of Tripolitania.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Bechuanaland Protectorate.
Subdivisions of Libya have varied significantly over the last two centuries. Initially Libya under Ottoman and Italian control was organized into three to four provinces, then into three governorates (muhafazah) and after World War II into twenty-five districts (baladiyah). Successively into thirty-two districts (shabiyat) with three administrative regions, and then into twenty-two districts (shabiyat). In 2012 the ruling General National Congress divided the country into governorates (muhafazat) and districts (baladiyat). While the districts have been created, the governorates have not.
The Provinces of Libya were prescribed in 1934, during the last period of colonial Italian Libya, and continued through post-independence Libya until 1963 when the Governorates system was instituted.
The British post offices in Africa were a system of post offices set up by the United Kingdom to be used by its Middle East Forces and East Africa Forces in Africa during and after World War II.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Tripolitania, now part of Libya.
Italian Tripolitania was an Italian colony, located in present-day western Libya, that existed from 1911 to 1934. It was part of the territory conquered from the Ottoman Empire after the Italo-Turkish War in 1911. Italian Tripolitania included the western northern half of Libya, with Tripoli as its main city. In 1934, it was unified with Italian Cyrenaica in the colony of Italian Libya. In 1939, Tripolitania was considered a part of the Kingdom of Italy's 4th Shore.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Brunei.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Cyrenaica, now part of Libya.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Fezzan and Ghadames, both now part of Libya.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Biafra.
The Allied administration of Libya was the control of the ex-colony of Italian Libya by the Allies from 13 May 1943 until Libyan independence was granted in 1951. It was divided into two parts:
The British Military Administration of Libya was the control of the regions of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania of the former Italian Libya by the British from 1943 until Libyan independence in 1951. It was part of the Allied administration of Libya.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Grenada.
Revenue stamps of British Guiana refer to the various revenue or fiscal stamps, whether adhesive or directly embossed, which were issued by British Guiana prior to the colony's independence as Guyana in 1966. Between the 1860s and 1890s, the colony issued Inland Revenue and Summary Jurisdiction stamps, while revenue stamps and dual-purpose postage and revenue stamps were issued during the late 19th and 20th centuries. In around the 1890s or 1900s, British Guiana possibly issued stamps for taxes on medicine and matches, but it is unclear if these were actually issued. Guyana continued to issue its own revenue stamps after independence.
Libya first issued revenue stamps when it was an Italian colony in 1913 and continues to do so to this day. The provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan as well as the municipality of Tripoli also had separate revenue issues until the 1950s and 1960s.
Postage stamps of Italian Libya were stamps issued by the Kingdom of Italy for use in Italian Libya, between 1912 and 1943.
A postage and revenue stamp, sometimes also called a dual-purpose stamp or a compound stamp, is a stamp which is equally valid for use for postage or revenue purposes. They often but not always bore an inscription such as "Postage and Revenue". Dual-purpose stamps were common in the United Kingdom and the British Empire during the 19th and 20th centuries, and they are still used in some countries as of the early 21st century.
