British Empire Stamps-India-George the 5th definitives.Some varieties and overprints

Illustrated below are George the 5th Indian Empire Stamps showing some of the printings, varieties and overprints issued during his reign.

                 

The four anna postage stamp was printed in two colours. Originally in an deep olive green (illustrated here) in 1911 then in a sage green in a later printing  with the altered legend "postage and revenue". the earlier exists overprinted "service" as the example shows.

The half anna of the same series shows some variety in shades and printing,The earlier printing of 1912 has the legend "postage and revenue". The later printing only "postage". The earlier printing is also known to exist with a quarter anna overprint (illustrated below)

The one and a half anna of the first issue also exists overprinted "service" with the modified value of one anna as illustrated here.

The values in the first issue are 3 pies, half anna,one anna,one and a half annas, 2 annas, 2 annas and 6 pies (printed in blue and orange), 3,4,6,8,12 annas. Some of these values are illustrated below.

A Small Page from an Old Album Showing Postage Stamps Of Italian East Africa

Illustrated below is a small selection of Italian postage stamps issued for the colony of East Africa. Below the page are two details of four of the stamps. The two stamps showing Italian soldiers holding military standards and the eagle stamp were overprinted "British Occupation" with new values by South African forces when they captured the colony during the Second World War. On orders from London most of these were never used and destroyed and are now quite rare.

A Page from an Old Postage Stamp Album of Italian Colonial Stamps

Below is a small page of postage stamps issued in Eritrea when the country was an Italian colony.  Details are shown below the page of  five of the stamps.

Two Italian Postage Stamps issued during the Second World War

Below are two illustrations of Italian postage stamps that will be instanly recognised by most people. They show Hitler and Mussolini with the caption "Two Peoples One War" The first illustration is of a postage stamp issued during the Italian Occupation of Libya.

3 Pages of old Japanese Postage Stamps

I like Japanese postage stamps for their design and for the cancels they use on stamps. I think sometimes the stamps are more attractive with the cancels than mint. If they don't obscure too much of the stamp the cancels add another dimension by their calligraphy. Below are some illustrations of older Japanese postage stamps with some details of individual stamps

Two Pages from Old Stamp Albums With Persian/Iranian Postage Stamps

Illustrated below are two album pages of old postage stamps from Persia (now Iran). Below them are details showing close ups of some of the stamps

An Old Album Page of Postage Stamps from Lebanon

Illustrated below is a page from an old album of Lebanese postage stamps. With two details showing close ups.