STAMP STORY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31071, 28 May 1966, Page 12

STAMP STORY

efficiently that the Egyptian Government entrusted its

official dispatches to it. Then, in 1864, Muzzi obtained a 10year concession; in return for carrying the Government’s correspondence free of charge he was granted an official postal monopoly for the whole country.

Muzzi seized his opportunity. Hitherto he had operated his service mainly for the benefit of foreign traders, now he transformed it into a nation-wide system, opening numerous post offices in the important towns. Within a year his profits were so enormous the Khedive offered a generous sum to buy his contract back! Muzzi accepted, and thereupon his service was taken over, just as it was, to become the Egyptian Post Office. Muzzi was taken on. at an attractive salary, as the first director.

As a government official he was known as Muzzi Bey, and one of his first projects after taking office was to issue Egypt’s first postage stamps. In view of the curious history of the enterprise it is perhaps not surprising that they were printed in Italy. Since Egypt was a Moslem country, religious considerations forbade the use of a portrait on the new stamps, and so they appeared in the intricate Arabesque design seen in the illustration. The watermark, incidentally, has a pyramid motif befitting the country of issue: surely the first historical building to be featured in. as distinct from on. any stamp.