Libya has been recently on the news for all the wrong (or maybe right) reasons but we hardly see Libya as a stamp issuing authority despite next year being the centenary of its first stamp issued in 1912. Below is some information and of course some of the famous Gaddafi’s stamps which we are sure many collectors would like to have as part of their collection, even if just for curiosity!

Beginning….

Italian colony

The area now comprising Libya was originally a vilayet of the Ottoman Empire which was ceded to Italy in 1912] and became an Italian colony. Stamps of Italy were issued from 1912 overprinted Libya and later Italian colonial issues were issued specifically for Libya. All stamps of colonial Libya were printed at the Italian Government Printing Works

From 1924 to 1934 Tripolitania and Cyrenaica had their own stamps before being unified in 1934, with Fezzan, as the Italian colony of Libya. Italian colonial issues continued until Libya was overrun by the British Army during the Second World War.

British stamps

British stamps overprinted M.E.F. (Middle East Forces) were used from 1943 to 1948 after the area was captured by the British during World War II. From 1 July 1948 stamps overprinted B.M.A. TRIPOLITANIA were used. Tripolitania only, used stamps marked B.A. TRIPOLITANIA from 6 February 1950 to December 1951.

Kingdom of Libya

In 1949 the British authorities recognised Amir Mohammed IdrisAl-Senussi as Emir of Cyrenaica, giving him internal autonomy. On 24 December 1951 Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan were unified as the Kingdom of Libya.

The first stamps of modern Libya were issued on 24 December 1951 and were overprinted stamps of Cyrenaica. Three different types of overprint were used, for the three provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan. The first stamps inscribed Kingdom of Libya were issued on 15 April 1952. A variety of inscriptions were used until 1969 including Libye, Libya, Libiaand United Kingdom of

Libia or Libya

Libyan Arab Republic

In 1969 King Idris I was deposed in a military coup and stamps including the word Kingdom were altered in a variety of ways to delete that word. Stamps were first issued marked L.A.R. then LAR and from the 1970s began to be inscribed Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya with equivalent wording in Arabic.

The Stamps with the dictator Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyaral-Gaddafi were issued several times in since the 1970’s.

published November 2nd, 2011