PALESTINE STAMPS & COINS

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Why are there stamps and coins from a country called Palestine?

Palestine Stamps and Money

Older stamps and coins that bear the name Palestine date from either the Ottoman Empire or the British Mandate period. There never was a sovereign country of Palestine.

Palestine Stamps

The history of Palestine stamps goes generally like this:

• Under the Ottoman Empire, the stamps of Turkey were used (1863-1917)
  
  
• In February 1918, the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force issued stamps marked "E.E.F.", valid in Palestine and other territories occupied by the British in World War I. Some are seen with the overprint "O.P.D.A." (Ottoman Public Debt Administration), an entity established in 1881 to protect British creditors.
  
  
• During the British Administration period before the formal start of the British Mandate for Palestine (1920-1923), stamps were identified by city where they were printed: Jerusalem I, II, III and London I, II. All stamps were overprinted with "Palestine" in English, Hebrew, and Arabic as required by Article 22 of the Palestine Mandate from the League of Nations
  
  
• In 1923, the British Post was assigned to design four stamps for the British Mandate administration in Palestine. The four designs were of the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem's Citadel, Rachel's Tomb and the Mosque of Tabarea, each design used for a different postal purpose. During the Mandate period these and other stamps were in use, under the control of the British authorities.
  
  
• In April 1948, the British ended all postal services as they prepared to abandon the Mandate. With Israel's founding in May 1948, the Israel Postal Authority replaced the British Mandate stamps with their own in the territory of Israel
  
  
• From the 1948 War of Independence to the 1967 Six Day War, Jordan occupied the West Bank and Egypt occupied Gaza imposing their own administration on the regions. For example, Jordan issued Jordanian stamps with the word "Palestine" overprinted.
  
  
• The Palestinian Authority issued its first stamps August 15, 1994. Some of these stamps feature reproductions of the old British Mandate stamps, perhaps not noticing that the older stamps carry a Hebrew inscription that includes the abbreviation for "Land of Israel".

Other organizations (e.g. the Arab Higher Committee or ) also issued stamps with the Palestine name for limited purposes under their control. The name Palestine itself is not Arabic and when it appears in the anglicized form "Palestine" contradicts the idea of a Palestinian nation. In fact, before Israel was founded Jews and Arabs alike who lived in the region were called Palestinians. The newspaper was the "Palestine Bulletin" and later the "Palestine Post" before becoming today's "Jerusalem Post", the Jewish-founded electric company was "Palestine Electric" and so on. See: Are the West Bank and Gaza "occupied territories" as Palestinain Arabs assert?)

Stamps have been issued by nations of the Arab world, and beyond, for propaganda purposes. Everything from the Dome of the Rock to the Palestinian Authority flag have been depicted to show solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs.

Palestine Money

From Biblical times, coins have been issued in the Palestine region. The last coins of the ancient Jewish state were issued by Bar Kochba in 134/135 AD and bear the name Israel. At least 38 different cities of the region issued coins according to some catalogs. Arab coins began to appear after the loss of Jerusalem. Sometimes the name of the mint appears on the coin using one of the old names for the region like "Filistin". The Crusader kingdoms minted coins and used regional names (e.g. "King of Jerusalem") even when they were based elsewhere.

In 1927 the British Mandate for Palestine began issuing coins and banknotes. As required by Article 22 of the Palestine Mandate from the League of Nations, this money bore inscriptions in the three languages of the Mandate: English, Hebrew, and Arabic. As with the stamps, the Hebrew form had the name Palestine and the abbreviation for Eretz Yisrael, "Land of Israel". The money remained in circulation until the end of the Mandate in 1948 and was recognized in the occupied zones by Egypt and Jordan for a few additional years.

Sources and additional reading on this topic:

• Palestine Philatelic Society
• Stamp Atlas: Palestine
• Bait Tov: Philatelic Atlas
• Israel Postal and Philatelic Museum
• Coins and Banknotes of the British Mandate of Palestine
• Stamp Collectors Take Note!
• The 1927 Holyland Token
• The Handbook of Biblical Numismatics