Middle East Stamps

Soon after Britain's successful 1840 experiment with the universal penny stamp, Middle Eastern nations clambered to set up similarly postal bureaucracies. Emirates and kings in the Middle East quickly transformed their postal systems, adopting the so-called universal adhesive stamp and doing away with private courier services. During the late 1800s, Emirates fashioned lucrative postal contracts with private international printers. These leaders and their business partners often crafted special Middle East stamp series to sell to international collectors. The Middle Eastern Emirates simultaneously sought logistical help from Europeans and manipulated their postal systems to further nationalist agendas. Consider the case of Iraq, which was granted its own private postal service by the League of Nations just after World War I. In 1923, Iraq produced its first series of stamps, which featured King Faisal I. In 1927 and 1931, Iraq ran another series of stamps, again honoring King Faisal I.When Iraq declared its independence in 1932, the government issued new stamps and currency, both of which, unsurprisingly, honored King Faisal I. In 1934, a new ruler gained power in Iraq. King Ghazi was content to share the ''postal stage'' with his predecessor on the next run of stamps. Following Ghazi's untimely death in 1941, the government scrambled to issue stamps of nature scenes.When the Baath Party leader, Saddam Hussein, gained power in the late 1970s, he inundated the Iraqi postal library with his image. Practically every Iraqi stamp minted during the 1980s featured his face or some allusion to his greatness. Following the successful American toppling of Saddam's regime in 2002, the Iraqi government stopped producing Saddam Era stamps and relied on Coalition transition stamps.