Lebanon: Issues under French Mandate 1924-1927

I am happy to do it!  My plan moving forward is to look for more of these overprinted French stamps for use in Lebanon (and other countries, too, like Syria, Algeria, Andorra, etc.) during my time in France.

I do know that there is stamp dealer in Aix-en-Provence, as I met him at the street market there during one of my previous visits.  I will tell him of my interest once I am there, and I will let everyone know what I am able to find.  Of course, if I do get some time in Paris, I will check things out there, too.

Lebanon Issues under French Mandate 1924-1927 (Scott #1-71)

When I came to France, I promised my good friend Jad Bombadil that I would seek out early issues from Lebanon and report my findings.  Well, I have done that with the one stamp dealer I have found here in Aix, and although he did not have a great deal of material, he was able to sell me one stock card full of stamps.  The stamps below are overprinted and surcharged stamps of France, and correspond to Lebanon, Scott #2-3, 5-6, 9-10, 13, and 17.

Jad, the good news for you is that when I go back to the U.S. in June for a short visit, I will consolidate all of my stamps of Lebanon, and all of my duplicates from this era will be sent to you.  So, please bear with me, but in the coming weeks, you will be receiving some more classic stamps of Lebanon from me, I promise!

1924 - Air Post - Out of set (C5-C8)

Scott(2013)   # C5           CV   Mint or used   £13

1926 - Air Post - Overprint on regular issue of 1925

Scott(2013)  Complete set -  # C13-C16₍₄₎       CV   £19

1926 -  Stamps of 1925 surcharged

Scott # 63-70(8)                  CV  £22

Incomplete set,missing # 66,67,70

Thank you blaamand ,

Thanks for this informative post, Jad!  I had not realized about Grand Liban overprint forgeries, but it certainly makes sense.  If we want to find references, then I would suggest that the best members to ask would be @falshung , jkjblue , classicalstamps , Ryan , and tomiseksj .  One of them may have or know where to find resources.

My own humble suggestion would be to take the low CV (catalogue value) overprinted stamps from this period, like most of the ones of which I posted images on this thread, and compare the overprints on those to the high CV stamps, like your 1924 Olympics stamps, and see if the overprints look the same.  If forgers are looking to defraud collectors, they will certainly spend their efforts on overprinting stamps which will end up with the highest CV.

This is another case where the original issues of the France 1924 Olympic Games commemoratives have relatively low CVs compared to the overprinted and surcharged versions, so these stamps would have been prime candidates for forged overprints.  Hopefully those who are more experienced in classic forgeries will be able to comment.

Edit:  Nelson (@falshung) has already responded as I was creating my post--well done, Nelson, I was obviously too slow off the mark!

This may be a little past the period you're looking for, but Morten (classicalstamps) has a few stamps written up on his website. He also lists some possible references.

In case this is helpful:

stampforgeries.com/forged-stamps-of-lebanon/

Well, it has taken me a while to get back to this, but I have finally gotten organized to do it.  Sorry for being so slow, Jad.  Since my first post of these issues back in March, I did acquire from the dealer at the Aix market some more of these early stamps, which allowed me to fill some holes and upgrade on some the previous examples.

Lebanon, Scott #1-3, followed by #5-6 and 9, and in turn followed by #10 and 13.  I do like these overprints and surcharges of the classic French issues!




The complete set of these stamps consists of 14 values.  So, 8 in hand and 6 more to find!

I think I am going to buy the whole series - this will complement what I have already in Inventory - 

René