2017-11-06 Mon

A handmade Ottoman era postage stamp named Duloz Takse issued in 1867, worth 80,000 Turkish liras ($20,570), of the denomination 25 kuru?, is the most expensive Turkish postage stamp. Philatelic experts believe that only nine such stamps are found in Turkey today. Handmade Ottoman stamps surcharged by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey are extremely rare and because of their limited editions with only 25 to 2,500 copies.

Frenchman, Mr. Duloz was a diemaker who prepared the printing blocks and printed the original edition of the stamps at a printing house in Paris. The government wasn’t happy with the first edition of the country's first stamps in 1863 and Duloz was hired to come up with better designs. The word "Takse" comes from taxation and means that it is a postage due stamp.