Tunisia: Stamps

Updated Page.

Tunisia 1906
Steiner page 36

Nice SON  (Socked on the nose) Postmark SFAX. (75c)

Another page (# 5)

Some of the peculiar Tunisian postage due stamps, here from the second set (with the dotted background) in 1888-98, with a T-shaped set of perforations. These perforations were done with the pages of stamps folded in two, so half of the stamps have the T upside down. I was able to acquire a few more of these:

Some of these have been posted previously by Rene and others with catalogue Nos. other than SG, so here, for those who are fans of repetition (and Gibbons), we  will do the Roman 'Amphitheatre in El Djem' (sometimes without the initial D) all over again.         The design is  reminiscent of the Coliseum possibly.     The full original set looks to be eighteen stamps, so obviously these here are part only.        Over the years, the basic design was re-used with various alterations - surcharges etc.    The  few here are a small part of my boot sale acquisitions earlier this week.

The 'Amphitheatre' series appears to start 1926 - 28 (?),  and with various changes goes through until the 1950s - the earliest SG Nos. are 140 to 146b - numerically being split to cater for shades etc. and with values  1F.05 to 20F  -  the surcharge on the 1F. 50 is SG 195  from 1938.

In January 1931 the basic design of the Amphitheatre is repeated but stamps now incorporate a full four-sided border which gives the stamp a possibly better appearance, and the Amphitheatre group are  reduced to a lesser  total of six  values - still culminating in 20 F  -  these are SG 186 to  191.    Presumably the original  design runs  concurrently with this 'new border' design, plus the final  design  revision which occurs  in  1941 to   1945  -  perhaps  all three  run together for some period of their lives.
This  final design alteration harks back to the original appearance, but drops the RF in the top border - these are SG 223 to  231 - a total of nine stamps, with the highest value remaining at 20 F.

Possibly with post WW II inflation or simply inadequate high value stamps, in 1945 the postal authorities introduced four high values ..........  F 20/25/50/100  -  an example of the F 50 is shown here - in brown-red, and these high values were produced, officially, until 1949, though certainly used into the 1950s.                   
The  stamps here show dated  post marks from what looks like 1926 through to 1952  -  though it's possible I need Specsavers again.       

Sorry I can't show all the values/colours/surcharges  -  like all things in life I  seem only to find parts  of things.   

Three (out of four) of the Tunis Regency overprinted stamps issued in 1908:

Tunisia sc B108, 10fr Neptune design with15fr surcharge, 1949, imperf.



According to Scott the surcharge was for the Association of Free French, which I gather was a charitable organization for Free French veterans. 

This Tunisia cover postmarked 21 Dec 1946 (from my dad's philatelic materials) carries stamps issued from 1940 (the Scott #89 A12 60c red orange) to the Scott #199 (A12 2.50fr brown orange, enlarged image). The Scott online catalogue states the latter stamp was issued 1947-1949, but the postmark is clearly 1946. The back of the cover was annotated by my dad, "Rec'd 1/10/47." I could find no other 2.50fr A12 stamp of this color. Is this issue date an error in the Scott catalogue?