Smirne
Smirne is the Italian name for İzmir, the city also known in English as Smyrna. Italian connections to the city go back a long way, but they were commercial rather than military. Between 1275 and 1340, allies of Genoa received concessions from the Nicaean Empire, including one of the city’s castles. The Genoese called the castle at the lower port “St. Peter.” In 1475, Venice carried out a surprise raid on the city.
By the late 17th century, the population included a considerable number of French, English, Dutch and Italian merchants. Their descendants stayed on, and the city’s Catholic Levantines are mostly of Genoese descent, with a smaller share of French and Venetian descent. As you can see, the Italian presence in Smirne was a community of traders and settlers, not an occupying force.
The occupation of the city after the First World War was Greek, not Italian. The Greek Army landed in Smyrna on May 15, 1919, after the Treaty of Sèvres offered western Turkey to Greece. The occupation lasted until September 8, 1922, when the last Greek soldiers left. The Turkish Army retook the city the next day. Then the Great Fire of Smyrna burned from September 13 to 22, 1922 and destroyed the Greek and Armenian quarters.
Note
This is a new album page, like all the others in this section. I have five of these stamps, but I haven’t taken the time to add them to the page yet. I’ll do that soon.
Contains 13 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) |
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9 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Leoni |
20p (jun 1922) |
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10 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Leoni |
1P 20p (jun 1922) |
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11 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Michetti |
3P (sep 1922) |
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12 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Michetti |
3P 30p (jun 1922) |
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13 |
Vittorio Emanuele III - Cellini |
7P 20p (jun 1922) |
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.
