Iraq — rezonville.com

The Postage Stamps of Iraq, 1917-1958

This part of the site site will, eventually, cover all the earlier postage stamp issues of Iraq, from the country's beginnings to the downfall of the monarchy in 1958. My plan is to essentially write about the stamps in the order they were issued, but there'll be much going backwards at the same time, as I insert new scans/information/etc. to finished pages.

I have embarked on the exercise of scanning and writing up my collection mostly to have something to keep me off the streets in the evenings; and I couldn't possibly emphasise with sufficient vehemence the extent to which I am not —and do not seek to hold myself out as— an authority on any of the matters discussed here, whether philatelic, historical or otherwise.

My Iraq collection is nothing like complete, extensive or even particularly high-quality, and most of my knowledge comes from nowhere further out than the Gibbons Catalogue and the Proud book; but I have long maintained a very great affection for these stamps and believe they hold considerably more philatelic interest and aesthetic appeal than is generally acknowledged — and, as there's very little useful information about them on the internet, I can only hope that, on some occasional moments, some points of light can possibly shine hereout through the fog of my ignorance and appalling writing style. If any readers have any wisdom to share or corrections to make, these will all be gratefully received.

My knowledge of Iraq's history has been pieced together mostly from sugar packets, so I am certain my attempts at historical overviews in the pages below are replete with errors both of commission and omission — for which I can only apologise in advance.

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I. Ottoman Iraq, 1863-1918

II. The Baghdad Issue, 1917

III. British Occupation Issue, 1918-1923

IV. Special Issue for Mosul, 1919

V. British Mandate Issue, 1923-1925

VI. King Faisal I - First Issue, 1927 & 1932

VII. King Faisal I - Provisional Overprints, 1932

VIII. King Faisal I - Second Issue, 1932

IX. King Ghazi Issue, 1934-1938

X. & XI. World War II Issues, 1941-1943

XII. King Faisal II - Second Issue, 1948-1951

XIII. The "Save Palestine" Overprints, 1948-1949

XIV. King Faisal II - Third Issue, 1954-1957

XV. King Faisal II - Fourth Issue, 1957-1958

XVI. The Iraqi Republic

XVII. Airmails and Commemoratives, 1949-1959

XVIII. The 1973 Overprints

Other pre-1958 stamps

Covers (to 1919)

Covers (1920 to 1929)

Covers (1930 to 1939)

Covers (1940 to 1949)

Covers (1950 to 1959)

thumb-70s covers.jpg

Covers (after 1959)

1941 Officials used in the 1970s

Some technical points:

1. Condition: my collection is generally fine used (often interpreting "fine" rather generously) — this is entirely down to budget considerations. I go for unused where this is cheaper. I feel no particular urgency to upgrade the used parts of my collection to unused — unused stamps are fungible, there’s clearly enough of them out there, and hopefully the lapse of a couple decades will bring prices down a bit.

2. Scanning: individual stamps are all done at 1200 dpi and are then punched up a little in Photoshop (applying the same treatment to each, for consistency). Covers are at 600 dpi and if I once knew the best way to deal with them at the post-production stage I've subsequently forgotten it: some scans are too bright and others are too sharp, probably. I expect not to ever have the energy to correct this.

3. Proper nouns: in these pages there is no consistent system of orthography whatsoever, and I vary between modern and historic (both English and French) romanisations based on the context, my mood, the relative positions of the planets, etc. No usage or non-usage is intended to imply any kind of political stance.