Eastern Rumelia
Crescent Definitive of 1884
This one piaster stamp is one value in a set of five issued in 1884.
This and the 20 para and 5 piaster values were never placed in use.
Eastern Rumelia was an autonomous unit within the Turkish Empire that began using Turkish stamps with various overprints in 1880. In 1881 stamps were issued by the Ottoman Empire inscribed ROUMELIE ORIENTALE with similar inscriptions in cyrillic and Greek alphabets. In 1885 the territory rebelled against Turkish rule and joined with Bulgaria, adopting the name South Bulgaria. South Bulgaria issued its own stamps from September 10, 1885 until October 1 when Bulgarian stamps were introduced. The union with Bulgaria was confirmed by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1886 after a war between Bulgaria and Serbia.
The location of Eastern Rumelia as indicated in the International Postage Stamp Album Twentieth Century 1901-1908.
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