Egypt

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Egypt was the first non-colonial African country to issue stamps and print their own postage stamps in South Africa. The first Egyptian stamp was issued on January 1st, 1866 and there were seven different values: 5 paras, 10 paras, 20 paras, 1 piaster, 2 piaster, 5 piaster and 10 piaster. Egypt joined the UPU in 1875. The modern postal system in Egypt was developed by Viceroy Mohammad Ali Pasha.

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In Africa, Egypt was the first country to have hand-stamped postal markings

By May 1st, 1898, there were 317 main post offices in Egypt along with 23 branch offices in large towns. The general admission was in Alexandria under Nevile Travers Borton Pasha. and the first to print their own stamps. It was also the first in the region to issue stamp booklets, use air mail and use photogravure for stamp production. As a nation that was known for balancing the progress of the west with the tradition of the region, it makes sense that Egypt was the first African country to follow Europe in using this new postal system.

What collection Egyptian Stamp collectors consider to be the first official collection

Some of Egypt’s earliest postage stamps had images of pyramids, sphinx and arabic text as well as images of kings at the time. Many of the most important items of Egyptian philately comes from the collections of Kings Fuad and Farukh, A. Mackenzie Low and E. Antonini and is known as the Nile Collection of postage stamps in South Africa.

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