Lebanon Territory - French Occupation - Hejaz Railway Tax

Hello Everyone ,

I found some of these going through my French colonies stamps. France 25c issue of 1907 Overprinted G.L. (Grand Liban) Hedjaz 2 Piastres. Posted below are two examples of my findings. I would like to briefly shed some light on Lebanon postal history before I proceed with my original post.
 
"The State of Greater Lebanon (French: État du Grand Liban) was a state declared on 1 September 1920, which became the Lebanese Republic in 1926, and is the predecessor of modern Lebanon.
Following the mandate given to France in 1920 and the defeat of Syrian forces in May 1920 ,Syria was divided in two countries, Syria and Lebanon; and both were under French military occupation. Stamps of France overprinted for use in Syria were used between 1919 and 1923 overprinted T.E.O. (Territoires Ennemis Occupés) or O.M.F. (Occupation Militaire Francaise). Lebanon used the stamps of France, overprinted Grand Liban in 1923. From 1925 Lebanon had its own stamps marked Grand Liban.

The Lebanese Republic was proclaimed on 23 May 1926. At first stamps of Grand Liban were overprinted "Republique Libanaise". Later stamps were prepared in the name of the new republic. and from the 1940s the term Liban started to be used, which is Lebanon's name in French. Independence was proclaimed in 1941, but the country was not evacuated by French troops until 1946. Today all stamps of Lebanon are marked simply Liban."

The overprint puzzled me at first as I could not ID in Scott, S.Gibbons or In a specialized Local Lebanese catalogue I bought recently. After an intensive google search I finally found a couple of French articles about this OverPrint, I studied French back in school so I tried my best translating some parts and summarizing the important facts .

Some brief history about Hedjaz railway:
The Hejaz Railway was originally built to transport pilgrims from Syria to Madinah, where they would travel on to Mecca for the Muslim Pilgrimage, another reason was to strengthen Ottoman control over the most distant provinces of the empire. The route was a narrow-gauge railway (1,050 mm/3 ft 5 11⁄32 in track gauge) that ran from Damascus(Syria) to Medina, through the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia, with a branch line to Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea.

The idea was first put forward in 1864 during the height of the age of great railways around the world, but it was not until 40 years later (1908) that the Hejaz Railway came into being. Before the Hejaz Railway, Muslim pilgrims traveled to Medina by camel caravan. The journey between Syria and Medinah usually took two months and was full of hardships.

On 1 September 1908 the railway officially opened, and by the year 1912 it was transporting 30,000 pilgrims a year. As word spread that the pilgrimage had just become easier, business boomed, and by 1914 the annual load had soared to 300,000 passengers. Not only were pilgrims transported to Medina, but the Turkish army began to use the railway as its chief mode of transport for troops and supplies. This was to be the railway's undoing, as it was severely damaged during the First World War (1914-1918), by Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab Revolt. The old Arab tribes that guided and guarded pilgrims now had the opportunity to turn their vengeance on the railway. While many claim that it was not their intention to destroy the railway, but rather attack the supply lines of the retreating Turkish army, the railway was destroyed anyway.

The OverPrint:
The surcharge G.L. (Greater Lebanon) HEDJAZ P.S. (Piastre) 1 or 2 was created for the collection of a tax on the Hédjaz railway by the French authorities when the train is passing through Lebanon to its final destination as settlement of the Ottoman Empire debt case at the time of Lausanne treaty in 1923 link.

The French authorities had entrusted the work of surcharging the stamps destined for the territories for which they were responsible to the Gédéon printing works in Beirut(Lebanon) in 1920, and then to the High Commission in 1921 and 1922, finally to that of the Capucin Fathers, always in Beirut . The stamps were surcharged either from 1921, by the High Commission, or, and it is probably more likely in 1923-1924 by the Capuchin Fathers of Beirut. Moreover the presence of the letters G.L for Great Lebanon corresponds well to the mandate dating officially from September 29, 1923.link

“The Surcharge is listed by Storch & Françon as non-postal, it would be more of a collector’s fantasy according to the authors. (TP at the 1907 Semeuse Type, Volume II p.398). However, Jean Bernard Parenti in a presentation of the piece of the month (Cilicia : une ébauche de tarifs postaux #210 – September 2011) of the French Philately Academy, invalidates this idea of fantasy.” link

My questions:

• I stumbled upon the term Collector’s Fantasy several times, can someone briefly explain for me what it means in the Philatelic world?
  
• Can any of our members provide me with more information and current value on this stamp I would be grateful, as I could not find any similar listings on Ebay or any other place so far?
• Also does anyone have any Storch & Françon or Yvert & Tellier materials covering French colonies in the Middle East?
  

Any input would be appreciated!