Benadir

Banaadir is a region in southeastern Somalia. It’s the location of the capital of the country, Mogadishu. The name comes from the Persian word for port, bandar.

These stamps have the name Benadir on them, which is the Italian spelling of the name. They were used in Somalia colony, but can be seen on the stamp album pages for other Italian colonies, except with the name of the other colonies overprinted on them.

The currency used was created and minted by Italy: the besa, the rupie, and the anna. I’m not sure why they used these particular words, other than Somalia was on the Indian Ocean and this was the currency used in India. Eventually, the Italian government swtiched them to centesimi and lira. You’ll see some overprints with those denominations.

Note

This series of elephants and lions was issued a few times over the years, with different perforations and different text overprinted on them. The two that go on the third row are a little expensive and not readily available. It may be quite a while before I get them.

Contains 19 spots: own 17 – 17 unused, 0 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Feb 5, 2025

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot

own

catalog

subject

description

comment

Benadir Pictorials - Besa & Anna

1.1	✓	1	African Elephant	1b (oct 1903) definitive, dark brown
1.2	✓	2	African Elephant	2b (oct 1903) definitive, green
1.3	✓	3	African Lion	1a (oct 1903) definitive, brownish red & carmine brown
2.1	✓	4	African Lion	2a (oct 1903) definitive, brown orange
2.2	✓	5	African Lion	2½a (oct 1903) definitive, blue
2.3	✓	6	African Lion	5a (oct 1903) definitive, yellow orange
2.4	✓	7	African Lion	10a (oct 1903) definitive, lilac

Benadir Pictorials I

3.1		8	African Lion	5a \| 15c (dec 1905) definitive, yellow orange
3.2		9	African Lion	10a \| 40c (dec 1905) definitive, lilac

Benadir Pictorials II

4.1	✓	10	African Elephant	1b \| 2c (jan 1907) definitive, dark brown
4.2	✓	11	African Elephant	2b \| 5c (jan 1907) definitive, green
4.3	✓	12	African Lion	1a \| 10c (jan 1907) definitive, brownish red & carmine brown
4.4	✓	13	African Lion	2a \| 15c (mar 1906) definitive, brown orange
5.1	✓	23	African Lion	2a \| 20c (nov 1916) definitive, brown orange
5.2	✓	14	African Lion	2½a \| 25c (jan 1907) definitive, blue
5.3	✓	15	African Lion	5a \| 60c (jan 1907) definitive, yellow orange
5.4	✓	16	African Lion	10a \| 1l (jan 1907) definitive, lilac

Benadir Pictorials III

6.1	✓	17	African Lion	5a \| 5c (apr 1916) definitive, yellow orange
6.2	✓	18	African Lion	10a \| 20c (apr 1916) definitive, lilac

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.