Historical Background: Great Britain was among the Powers that operated their own Post Offices on sovereign Turkish territory in the 19th century. This anomaly of national post offices operating in the Ottoman Empire was due to the so-called Capitulations. The term "Levant" is used to describe the Ottoman Ports.

A civilian British Post Office was first established in Constantinople in 1857, a year after the closure of the Army Post Office which was set up during the Crimean War. In the following years, four more offices were opened in the Levant: Smyrna in 1872 (now Izmir in Turkey), Beyrout in 1873, Stamboul in 1885 a Constantinople sub-office and Salonica in 1900 (now Thessaloniki in Greece). WATERMARK; Emblems Type 1 up

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COLOUR; Green

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