Postage stamps and postal history of Yemen
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This is a survey of the
North Yemen
Early posts
The first posts in Yemen were part of the Ottoman Empire postal system. After the Ottomans withdrew from Yemen there was no formal postal service, as far as is known, until the first issue of Yemeni stamps in 1926.[1]
Post-Ottoman cancellation marks of Yemen
The Ottoman withdrawal left the Yemen without a formal postal system, or at least there is no surviving evidence of one, until the first issue of stamps in 1926. C&W and A&P mostly concern themselves with the Ottoman era and the German cancellers. Some intaglio cancels are described elsewhere though the makeshift provisional types are unexplored.
Hand-carried mail 1918-1926
Mail, un-franked and carried privately during this period is rare: and usually attributable to Imam Yahya who maintained a royal courier post to carry his own correspondence in confidentiality (sic).or members of his immediate family. They were addressed to various, usually British, Government representatives.
First stamps
Early intaglio seals 1926-1930
Locally produced intaglio seals were used to cancel domestic mail franked by the first issue of Yemen in 1926. All of the First Issue Stamps of Yemen are cancelled with intaglio seals. Neither Ottoman nor German bilingual postmarks are found as principal cancel of the first issue. The intaglio cancels on the first issue vary in diameter from 20 to 31mm; the smaller, less elaborate ones tend to have been used earlier and vice versa. None are found with later 35mm intaglio cancels. McDonald states 99%+ of the many hundreds he encountered were cancelled by either Sanaa or Hodeida postmarks whereas there were potentially 30 post offices where a canceller could have been used as this is the total on the list submitted to the UPU in Yemen's application to join in 1930.
Printed matter
Mail to foreign destinations required additional postage as Yemen was not yet a member of the UPU. With printed matter i.e. the Umm al Qura newspaper and the government gazette Al Iman to foreign destinations including Cairo, Damascus and Beirut the additional franking was usually the one Anna adhesives, though also found without additional franking. Syrians worked in Yemen in Government service.
Letters to Italy and its colony Eritrea
Mail to Italy was generated as a treaty of trade and commerce was secured and with it Italian personnel including doctors arrived in Yemen.
Civil war
During the
South Yemen
Colonial Aden
The British Crown
Federation of South Arabia
People's Democratic Republic
South Yemen became independent as the
Unification
North Yemen and South Yemen unified on 22 May 1990 to form the present-day Yemen. Today, Yemen has a range of modern postal services run by the General Corporation for Post and Postal Saving.[6]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Post Ottoman Cancellation Marks of Yemen" by Robert Waugh in Opal, Journal of the Oriental Philatelic Association of London, pp.15-29, No.224, May 2010.
- ISBN 0-356-10862-7
- ^ "Yemen | Stamps and postal history | StampWorldHistory". Archived from the original on 2018-03-03. Retrieved 12 August 2018.[title missing]
- ^ "Aden | Stamps and postal history | StampWorldHistory". Archived from the original on 2018-03-03. Retrieved 12 August 2018.[title missing]
- ^ "South Arabia | Stamps and postal history | StampWorldHistory". Archived from the original on 2017-12-14. Retrieved 12 August 2018.[title missing]
- ^ "Yemeni post services: a review of achievements" Yemen Times 1 January 2009[permanent dead link]
Further reading
- "The First Issue of the Yemen" by Stanley Phillips in Gibbons Stamp Monthly, July 1932.