Big Blue 1840-1940

A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzabar

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Turkey - Bud's Big Blue

1865-74 Turkey in Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Big Blue

Bud's Observations

(From Jim: Bud is well, but has a lot of non philatelic obligations and responsibilities at the moment. With his permission, I will upload country pages in his complete '69 Big Blue that so far has not been shown. He might add his observations later. Enjoy!)

Jim's Observations

Turkey is located in Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor, situated between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

The Ottoman Empire reigned from there between 1299 - 1922, and then the Republic of Turkey was born in 1923.

The Ottoman Empire issued its first postage stamp on January 1, 1863 with the "Tughra", the calligraphic monogram of Sultan Adul-Aziz.

Between 1865-1876, the "Crescent and Star", enclosed by a central oval, and symbols of the Turkish Caliphate, were used on the so-called typographic "Duloz" stamp issues.

The Ottoman Empire joined the General Postal Union (then the Universal Postal Union) in 1876. A new Empire issue was released, with the name of the country and values in both western script and Arabic script, and was intended for use to countries within the UPU.

The 1901-1911 issues all had the Tughra of the reigning monarch.

WW I proved the end of the Ottoman Empire, who had entered the war in 1914 on the side of the Central Powers. The Allies occupied Constantinople.

The Sultinate was abolished by the National Assembly on November 1, 1922.

Turkey was declared a republic on October 28, 1923, under the leadership of President Mustafa Kemal.

The "Star and Crescent" design of the first stamp issue of the Republic of Turkey marked the end of the use of the "Tughra", which had been on most stamps from 1863-1922.

Note that "Constantinople" was officially changed to "Istanbul" in 1930.

The capital was and is Ankara, and the population was 17,800,000 in 1940.

he 2014 Scott Classic Specialized 1840-1940 catalogue has, for the Turkish (Ottoman) Empire and Turkey 1863-1942, 1303 major number descriptions. Of those, 594 are CV <$1-$1+, or 46%.

The Ottoman Empire became the second independent country in Asia (after Russia) to issue stamps in 1863, when there were 63 domestic post offices. They were a founding member of the Universal Postal Union in 1875.

Turkey is a world of its own with many overprints and surcharges. The stamps reflect the "Ottoman Empire" to 1922, and then the "Republic of Turkey" beginning in 1923.

The stamps reward the careful WW collector that is willing to pay attention to the many complicated - at first glance, and even second glance- overprinted and surcharged issues.

Note: To help with the numerous overprinted/surcharged Ottoman Empire stamps, I published a "Turkish Classical Stamp Bath Too Hot? Ten Helpful Hints" post - See link below.

Big Blue '69, on 14 1/2 pages, has 394 spaces for the stamps of Turkey (Turkey in Asia will be treated separately). The categories included are regular issues, postage due, semi-postal, postal tax, and air post. Coverage is 30%.

The 14 1/2 pages and the 394 spaces is the most coverage by BB of any of the remaining T-Z countries.

Newspaper stamps (one whole page- 33 spaces) were included in the 1940s editions, but gone entirely in the '69 edition.

There are only nine stamps that are "expensive" ($10-$30).

For much more on Turkey, check out the links below.

Turkey Blog Post & BB Checklist

Turkey overprints - ten hints

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