Mavi Boncuk |
"Stamps from Eastern Rumelia (a breakaway province from the Ottoman Empire) were issued in 4 languages (Turkish, French, Greek and Bulgarian), and used 4 different scripts (Arabic, Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic)"
Eastern Rumelia or Eastern Roumelia was an autonomous province (vilayet) in the Ottoman Empire from 1878 to 1908; however, it was under Bulgarian control beginning in 1885. The 1878 Treaty of Berlin provided for the Ottoman Empire to issue special stamps for Eastern Rumelia. However, they were slow to do so. In 1880, in part a reaction to the local postcard, the Turkish government sent some 50,000 piasters worth of Turkish stamps overprinted with "ROUMELIE / ORIENTALE" in an oval.
The stamps that were specifically printed for Eastern Rumelia used design elements from the existing Ottoman postage stamps, differing from them by having the Greek inscription Ανατολική Ρωμυλία (Anatolian (i.e. Eastern) Rumelia) above the "Emp. Ottoman" and with French and Bulgarian inscriptions of the name in small letters along the left and right sides. In 1884, a 5 paras stamp and a ten paras stamp of a second issue of this design, with changed colors, were issued.
On September 10, 1885, the existing Rumelian issues were overprinted with two different images of the Bulgarian lion, and then with the lion in a frame and "Bulgarian Post" in Bulgarian (Cyrillic letters).Pictured: Stamps from Eastern Rumelia
1885 20 para, rosa and pale rosa, type I blue, perforation 11½,
Eastern Roumelia 1883 envelope to St Etienne, France franked 1pi. tied by barred cancel and with green Philippopoli (former name of Plovdiv, Bulgaria) date stamp in association, Constantinople transit and Odessa disinfection cachet at centre. With rastel punches and cuts at edge on each side.
Balkan Changes (Click to see full size)
