Museum of Postage Stamps and Equipment

Dr. Kutaiba al Shihabi, Tourist Guide Magazine,
September-October 2005,  Translated by:Ahmad Kattoub

A corner in the Museum Of Postage Stamps & Equipment

A new museum was lately added to the cluster of museums that reflect the civilized face of Syria; namely the National Museum, the Army Museum, Museum of Arab Medicine and Sciences, Museum of Calligraphy, Museum of the History of Damascus, and the Agricultural Museum. To make the saying: Stamps record history and history is reviewed in stamps ٍ a reality, a new Museum of Postage Stamps and Equipment was opened in Damascus in the year 2005. The new museum is located inside the building of the Central Postage Department in Saadallah alJabery Street in the center of Damascus. It occupies a large hall in the second floor. Exhibits can be classified into two categories:

1. Postage Equipment:

These include the different tools used in postage service such as scales of letters, scales of parcels…….etc. Among the exhibits are three guns; two of them revolvers which were used by Turkish Gendarme, the third is a pistol used by Ottoman postmen in the late Ottoman era to protect postage from robbers.

2. Syrian postage stamps:

Syrian stamps were classified according to the chronological times of issue as from the year 1920 till this date. These stamps are exhibited either in wooden frames protected by glass fixed on the walls or laid on tilted glass frames or in glass holders that can be rotated manually to allow visitors to see each stamp collection separately.
Stamps collections include memorial stamps printed originally to memorize a certain event :building an important school like the high school known as al Tajheez (Jawdat alHashimi), a hospital like al Mouasat or a government building like he Palace of Justice) or an economic establishment like the Euphrates Dam or Lake Asad, or to commemorate the discovery of an archaeological site like Tall Mardikh (Ebla or Ras Shamra (Ugarit).One of the collections include a stamp for each one of the former presidents of the Syrian Republic, of Arab and Moslem heroes like Saladin and Abu al Aalaa al Maarri, or world celebrities.
Other collections were issued in special occasions like the Cotton Festival in Aleppo or the Damascus International Fair in Damascus, or the Flowers Exhibition or in national occasions like the National Day of Syria or to draw the attention to a new economic activity like the glass or carpet industry.

History of stamps:

Stamps are small official pieces of printed paper with indented edges, of one or several colors, their backs are usually covered with dry glue to facilitate wetting and fixing them on papers or envelops. They have square or rectangular shapes, some times oval or diamond. They are usually issued by the government with a certain financial value to be used against a received service. Stamps are of two kinds:

1. Tax stamps:

Usually used instead of money in official transactions. In 1642 the government of Netherlands issued the first tax stamp, and in 1694 the British government authorized the use of stamps to collect money to finance war with France. Issuing a law for using stamps in the US in 1765 was one of the direct reasons of the war of Liberation against the British. In 1814 stamps became part of the U.S. financial system, and in 1862 the US Congress issued the Law of Stamps which stated that official dealings should be paid for in stamps to cover the costs of the civil war between the North and the South, and later the Spanish war. The same law was applied during WWI and WWII.

2. Postage stamps:

Usually fixed on envelops of letters and parcels mailed inside or outside the country. The idea of postage stamps started in 1837 when Rowland Hill had a plan to use stamps instead of money paid for mailing letters and parcels. He also adopted using envelops after being folded and sealed with wax. In the first of May 1840 the first collection of stamps bearing the photo of Queen Victoria was issued in the UK. Brazil followed this system later, and the Swiss Federation adopted stamps in 1843, and in 1847 the US followed the trend. In the same year the World Postage Union was established to publicize the system all over the world.

No body knows exactly when this hobby started, but it is believed that it originated immediately after the issue of the first stamp. The first indexed album was issued in 1864, therefore we can say that this hobby might have started around this date. Some people realized that it is difficult to acquire rare stamps, therefore they tended to ask high prices for them, a phenomenon that changed the hobby into a profitable kind of trade. Prices of certain stamps soared high to reach climatic prices. A Swedish stamp issued in 1857 valued 3 shillings was later sold for US$ 2.260.000. Any mistake in printing a stamp will raise its price among stamps collectors because it will be considered a rare item.