Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 and other European nations maintained an extensive system of post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

s in the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

, typically motivated by the unreliable postal system of the Ottomans.

First services

Austria gained permission in 1721 to operate a postal service for official correspondence only and subsequently this was extended to the opening of post offices and carrying mail for merchants. This resulted in 1748 with the establishment of a post office in Galata

Galata

Galata or Galatae is a neighbourhood in the Beyoğlu district on the European side of Istanbul, the largest city of Turkey. Galata is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn, the inlet which separates it from the historic peninsula of old Constantinople. The Golden Horn is crossed by...

 outside of Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, and eventually extended to dozens of locations throughout the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

 and the eastern Mediterranean.

Beginning in 1863, stamps of Lombardy-Venetia were used, but after the losses of these areas in 1867, Austria had to issue special stamps; in appearance identical to Austrian stamps of the period, but denominated in soldis and florins. In 1886 this was changed to paras

Turkish lira

The Turkish lira is the currency of Turkey and the de facto independent state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The lira is subdivided into 100 kuruş...

 and piasters to match Turkish money, first by surcharging the existing stamps of the offices, then regular Austrian stamps.

Stamps printed specifically for the offices resumed in 1906, by using Austrian stamps missing the denomination (at this point the denomination of Austrian stamps was printed in a second step), and the Jubilee issue of 1908 included the same designs denominated in piasters.

While early issues are not common, the volume of mail by the end of the empire was such that both used and unused stamps are still commonly available.

Postal stationery

The first items of Postal stationery

Postal stationery

A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related service has been prepaid...

 to be made available to Austrian post offices in the Turkish Empire were envelopes in 1867. A total of 10 different envelopes in soldi currency were issued up to 1872, these were valid for use till 31 October 1884. Only one envelope was ever issued in French currency in 1908.

Postcard

Postcard

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....

s were first issued in 1873 in soldi currency, 5 different postcards were issued. Then in 1888 these were replaced by an issue in Turkish currency, a total of 13 different items were issued before these were replaced by postcards in French currency in 1903. A total of 10 different postcards are known in French currency.

One lettercard

Lettercard

In philately a lettercard or letter card is a postal stationery item consisting of a folded card with a prepaid imprinted stamp. The fact that it is folded over gives the writer twice as much room for the message compared with a postal card. The message is written on the inside and the card is...

 only was issued in soldi currency in 1886. Four different lettercards were issued in Turkish currency one each in 1888, 1890, 1900 and 1908.

During the period of Turkish currency only three different newspaper wrappers were issued one each in 1890, 1900 and 1908. One newspaper wrapper was issued in French Currency in 1908.

Sources

• Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
• Encyclopaedia of Postal History
• Rossiter, Stuart
  Stuart Rossiter
  Percival "Stuart" Bryce Rossiter was a renowned British philatelist and postal historian who wrote extensively about British postal history and postage stamps of British colonies in Africa and was actively involved in numerous philatelic institutions...
  
   & John Flower. The Stamp Atlas. London: Macdonald, 1986. ISBN 0356108627
• Shaw, Stanford J.
  Stanford J. Shaw
  Stanford Jay Shaw was an American historian, best known for his works on the late Ottoman Empire, Turkish Jews, and the early Turkish Republic...
  
  & Shaw, Ezel Kural, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey Volume 2, 1977, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521291666

External links

• List of post office locations, opening and closing dates