Gerusalemme
Gerusalemme is the Italian name for Jerusalem, which became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517 and was still under Ottoman rule in the early 1900s. The Ottoman post was not the only choice there. Austria and France had opened offices in Palestine around 1852, Russia in 1856 and Germany in 1898, and Germany’s Jerusalem office opened on March 1, 1900. As a result, Italy was the last of these powers to set up a post office in Jerusalem.
The Italian post office in Jerusalem opened on June 1, 1908, as one of several Italian offices opened in the Ottoman Empire that year. The Ottomans did not welcome them. In April 1908, newspapers reported that the Porte planned to station guards outside the new offices to keep the public from entering, and that Italy was sending three naval divisions to Turkish waters as a result. Italy opened the offices anyway. The office used Italian stamps overprinted GERUSALEMME and surcharged in Ottoman currency, e.g., 1 Piastre on 25 centesimi and 4 Piastre on 1 lira.
The Italo-Turkish War changed things for a while. The Jerusalem office closed on October 1, 1911, and was shut until November 30, 1912. After that it operated until September 30, 1914. Because it was open for such a short time, all stamps from this office are relatively scarce.
Note
I don’t have any of these stamps. They’re not difficult to find from Italian stamp dealers, nor are they very expensive. I just haven’t focused on this page yet. I will one day, but not too soon.
Contains 8 spots: own 0 – 0 unused, 0 used.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Leoni |
10p (feb 1909) |
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2 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Leoni |
20p (feb 1909) |
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3 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Michetti |
30p (feb 1909) |
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4 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Michetti |
1P (feb 1909) |
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5 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Michetti |
2P (feb 1909) |
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6 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Cellini |
4P (feb 1909) |
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7 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Cellini |
20P (feb 1909) |
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8 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Cellini |
40P (jan 1911) |
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.
