Third Issue: January 1, 1872
The Third Issue was put on sale on January 1, 1872, and sales continued until April 1879, when the Fourth Issue superseded it.
These stamps owed their origin to the conferment upon Ismail Pasha of the title of "Khedive", hence all Government Departments, including the Postal Administration, were named "Khedivial", and this designation was applied too, in Arabic and French, on the stamps of this issue.
They were produced in two distinct printings, 1872 and 1874-1875, at the Government Printing Works, Boulac, Cairo. The two printings vary in the following characteristics:
- The 1872 sheets have a thick line of colour in the top margin of the sheet (or at the right hand side on the majority of the 5 paras sheets) and the other margins are all blank.
- A decorative pattern surrounds the sheet on all four sides in the 1874-1875 printing.
The first printing of the Third Issue is produced on thick paper with the impressions sharp and clear; the second on thinner paper, sometimes oily in appearance (used for the 5pi. values) or having blurred impressions.
The first printing has clean-cut perforations, compared with the blind or defective perforations of most of the 1874-1875 stamps. Some exceptions may be found, but there should be no difficulty for anyone to sort out the low values of the two printings.
From Left to Right:
5pa dull chestnut to deep red-brown | 10pa dull violet or reddish violet | 20pa Prussian blue, indigo & pale blue (lithographs only)
1pi rose-red to deep rose-red | 2pi yellow | 2½p slate violet (pale to deep) | 5pi bright green
Overprinted January 1, 1879
10pa on 2½p slate violet | 5pa on 2½p slate violet
Resources
- The London Philatelist (Jan-Mar 1956) / L'OP 102 (reprint)
- Peter Smith: Chapter XIV (p183-220)
- Collection: The Keith Pogson Collection
