Explanation of unusual overprints on Turkey revenue/fiscal stamps?

[Brit-Col]

I’ve come across these completely baffling (to me anyway) overprints on a pair of Turkey revenue stamps.

Considering that most of the material in this particular album that I’m working through is not particularly valuable I’m guessing these are not rarities. But curious to know the meaning, particularly the one on the left - was the idea to get a bit of Dickens or Efendi while paying one’s duty?

BC

[Number-O-Ne]

These are not overprints.

Newspaper revenues with part of the newspapers printed on them.

You're right about the value.

[kuikka]

Number-O-ne knows much more about these than I know. However, this time his answer was quite short, so I spell out something he omitted.

The stamp was fixed to an empty paper sheet used for printing a newspaper. When the newspaper was printed, it was up to your luck what part was printed on the stamp.

So, it is likely you will not find two identical print on stamps, even if the come from the same day newspaper.

[nigelc]

Hi,

Here's an example I've shown before of an Ottoman Crete revenue stamp on a single sheet Greek language newspaper from Heraklion:

This scan just shows a small part of the complete newspaper.

[Brit-Col]

Thanks to all.

Seems there is nothing “unusual” about the overprints after all!

BC

[David Benson]

The stamp on the left is cancelled in Armenian,

David B.

[HalfpennyYellow]

The Ottoman Empire was not the only country which used such revenue stamps.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, France issued Affiches stamps which were used on posters and these too often have overprint-like text on them:

https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=89314

Before that, from the early 18th to the mid-19th centuries, the UK had newspaper and almanack stamps which were used in a similar manner. However, unlike the Ottoman or French issues, these were not adhesive stamps but were printed directly onto the documents (the revenue equivalent of postal stationery). These printed impressions were often within the newspaper's margins, but sometimes they did overlap with the printed text. An example from another thread below:

Sheet and book almanacks were also taxed, in fact the Almanack Duty was first imposed in 1711, a year before the Newspaper Duty.
Here's a Type 80, which was the first of the almanack stamps to show the Unified Duty, ie. a single total amount, rather than showing the individual increases.
The One Shilling Type 80 was first used on 1805 almanacks, and it had the same design as the previous Type, but with the addition on each side of the rose, thistle and shamrock emblems, representing the Act of Union with Ireland (though the stamp could not be used in Ireland).

...

https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=94697