This stamp was issued for franking all inland official mail regardless of its weight or whether registered or not. It did not apply to parcels. During the long life of this issue, from 1893 to 1914, many changes took place
either in paper type, sheet arrangement or watermark:
1883 - 1902: First printing; on un surfaced paper in sheets of 240 stamps (4 panes of 60) with watermark wide crescent and star Wmk. 5a (upright) each pane was surrounded by a solid (continuous) buffer line.
1903 - 1907: Second printing on Chalk-surfaced paper in sheets of 240 stamps (4 pans of 60) each pane was arranged 6 x 10 with same watermark (Wmk. 5a) the surrounding buffer was changed to interrupted (coextensive) buffer bar.
1907 - 1909: On February 1st 1907, a new set of official stamps were issued based on the De La Rue Stamps overprinted "O.H.H.S." and in Arabic miri ميري (official) so the no value stamp was redundant.
1909 - 1914: It was re-introduced on January 1st 1909, same as 1903-1907, but the stamp was used only to frank unregistered internal official mail (correspondence), regarding the registered, insured or parcels; stamps of the 1907 issue was used.
1914 - 1915: Third printing; on Chalk-surfaced paper in sheets of 600 stamps (6 panes of 100) each pane arranged 10 x 10, the panes were arranged 2 x 3 the watermark was changed to narrow Crescent and star Wmk. 4c (sideways), the
buffer bar also exist around each pane in addition to multiple Pillars in gutters between the four panes.
1915 - 1922: The remaining stamps were overprinted in Typography to be used as fiscal stamps on documents, the surcharged were in Arabic; 1 P.T., 2 P.T., 3 P.T. & 5 P.T. (piastres) some of the stamps were used on official mail covers
(seen from 1919 to 1922), it seems to have been used to pay the simple letter rate of 5milli�mes despite the overprinted face value.
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