Great Britain - Offices in Italian Africa Collection Page Scans
The Great Britain - Offices in Italian Africa set of stamps were printed from 1945 until about 1951. It includes the M.E.F. (Middle East Forces), Eritrea, Somalia, and Tripolitania sets of stamps. All issues, except for the Postage Dues were overprinted on stamps from Great Britain.
Most of the sets are pretty simple to collect. The exception is the M.E.F. lower values which were overprinted in both Cairo and London. As a result, there are noticeable, collectable varieties that you should look for. These are listed in the Commonwealth and Stanley Gibbons Catalogues. You should measure the width of the overprint, and note the characters - in particular the periods. See the images below to see what to look for:
This overprint is also found with roughly shaped characters.
The pages are from my collection, and
are identified by the Commonwealth, Gibbons, and Scott numbers in that
order. The page images were scanned in a larger size and at a higher resolution
so you can more easily see the details used in viewing them. Feel free
to select the page and let it download to your screen and save it to your
hard drive for viewing. If you are using a PC, selecting the page will
typically open it in Microsoft Photo Viewer (or whatever you are using
as your default). From there you can enlarge the size for more close-up
viewing. If you are using a phone - go find a PC or a Mac. The images
are 1200 pixels wide and you will go mad trying to view them on your phone.
Please be patient if it takes a few minutes for each page to load.
This article was written to help you identify
your stamps.
Please feel free to ask a question, or suggest a correction.