2018-04-24 Tue

Posta Europea Stamp of Egypt The Posta Europea was a privately owned postal service in Lower Egypt. It was founded by an Italian printer called Carlo Meratti.

On the eve of Carlo Meratti’s arrival in Egypt, the only existing postal service in Egypt was the State Courier Post established by Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. The Pasha Post was mainly in service of government officials, but it also focused on the general public. However, it was not efficient enough.

Carlo Meratti, who realized the importance of efficient and reliable postal service, established a successful regular postal service between Alexandria and Cairo in the late 1820’s, which were most important Egyptian towns.

With its head office at Alexandria, the Postal Sevice of Carlo Meratti was later called ‘La Posta Europea’. This new name implied to its customers a similar standard of postal service as in Italy and the connection with Europe it offered.

Further, in 1864 The Viceroy, Ismail Pasha, was so impressed with the proposal that he decided to re-purchase the postal monopoly. Now on, the ownership of the Posta Europea officially passed to the State Administration. The Posta Europea ceased to exist and the Viceroyal Post (Poste Vice-reali Egiziane) was born.

Hence, early Egyptian stamps and cancellations have Italian inscribed on them.

Image Curtsey: https://upload.wikimedia.org