Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-17

I EG1TIMACY fails to attach to a political
IL uprising, in the sngle.track mind of
stamp collector, until the nation where the
revolution takes place establishes a postal
system and announces the coming Of a
stamp Issue. The philatelist regards with
suspicion the creation Of an independent
OF OF provisional government until he
learns II is planning to put forth stamps or
mas done so. A. soon as these appear the
stamp collector luoks with favor upon the
new government and Is ready mentally ~
dignity its existence
Inc dissension in Greece was one ex-
ample, and another was the short lived
rebel movement in Cuba last snring A.
soon as Non!zelos's followers issued sneciaI
S'ailps Tor their provisional government
coHectors considered that the siRnihcance
ul the uprising was deeper than they had
uvuore thought and when the Cuban revo-
luuonlsts disregarded the regular stap,ns
OF Cuba and began to use some nronarad
Ny ana tor themselves, collectors began 10
read Tor the first time with genuine Interest
Vi Ihe movements of these rebels One I'm.
rising succeeded and the other failed hut
what was Of importance to collectors ,Yos
the fact that each left philatelic records
And so to mary collectors who are not dill
igeht readers Of news cable dispatches and
IN whose minds the events in the Balkans
nave Deeh more or less confusing, the first
news that Albania had claimed anew her
independence came with the announcement
that this tiny country had set lin a nostaI
administration. Phiatelists, knowing that
the troops OF number Of the Entente ma.
uons were in that part of the world, won
uereu whether this postal service was TO be
under British, French or Italian naternity
1t was expected that the military forcas ~
one OF these three would supervise II. and
no surprise would have been occa asioned ~
British, French or Italian stanps had an
peared' overprinted to indicate their use
by Albanians.
Instead this newly autonomous country
has won the admiration of phlately by de-
signing and putting forth her own stamps
labels Of distinctly Albanian character
once more the Albanian double headed eagle
was brought into use
This device was first used by Albania
when, shaking off Turkish rule in 1918 and
hnding herself in immediate need of stannps
other than the hated Ottoman labels abe
had been forced to use, she surcharged a
hgure Of the two-headed bird upon those
lurklsh stamps. This was an expedient
pending the printing Of a permanent set
bearing the portrait of Scanderbeg, IF
teenth century Albanian rational hero
The history Of the past few years tells
the story of how Albania was engulfed in
the world war. She lost her postal service
with her national entity, to regain both only
in recent weeks after the arrival of French
troops sent from Salonica to aid her in
setting up new government. Thus France
having promised military protection and
Italy political protection, Albania chose a
flag, obtained finances and issued stamps
The new Albanian postal series consists
Of eight denominations: one, two three
FIVE ten twenty-five and fifty centmes and
one franc. The fact that the values are
expressed in centimes and franc and not in
centesimi and lira shows that France and
not Italy inaugurated Albanias postal serv-
ice, The illustration on the labels is the
double-headed eagle. Each stamp bears
three native words: 'Korce," meaning
Kortiza, the name Of d district where the
French troops took counsel with Albania
leaders, "Shqipenie," meaning Albania, and
"vetqeveritare," meaning autonomy
Religion and Philately
The close of a long legal and religious
conflict, during which Mohammedan inter-
ests endeavored unsuccessfully to overthrow
the worlds oldest Christian country. Abys-
snia, has been signalized with a series of
postage stamps. The throne of Solomon
may be seen as the illustration Of one of
these labels.
The stamps are those of Abyssinia's 1909
set, showing Solomons seat upon the lower
values and portraits of Negus Meneik, then
Emperor upon the higher denominations
but which have now been overprinted with
the name of the present Empress. The
latter's name has been variously spelled