Page 35 - DILMUN 11

In 1953, the first “Local” stamp had been issued
on February 15th; and the G.B. Coronation set on
June 3rd. The Wza. “Local” stamp, bearing a
portrait of the Ruler Shaikh Suleman bin Hamad
al-Khalifa, covered the internal letter rate; and
revenue from its sale in existing Post Offices
accrued to the Bahrain State Postal Service which
took over the internal mail system, as a first step to
postal independence. Revenue from the sale of the Type 34 Type 35
overprinted G.B. stamps continued to be credited
to the British Postal Agency which remained
responsible for all external services. In October
1956, V21X. and la. values in the same design were
added to the “Local” series.
Although specifically intended only for internal
use, the “Local” stamps were occasionally used —
and were accepted as valid — on International % 13 MY 2 ( II uj 64
Mail, either by themselves or in conjunction with ^ V REG. 3
British Agency stamps. They are more frequently N
found with British Agency cancellations but new,
locally-made cancellers were introduced by the
State Post Office specially for use on these stamps. Type 36
Type 29 was the first incorporating the name Type 37
BAHRAIN in Arabic, and Types 30 and 31 were
the first to identify MANAMA.
have the Arabic numbers reversed. In later use,
Manama 2 may be found with a 6-point star in
place of the Arabic “2” above the date; and
Muharraq usually has a thick sans serif” 1” in place
ku of the Arabic figure. Types 37, 38 and 39 were
registered in the Impression Book on August 26th.
1 AUG1957 -7 NOV 1957

MANAMA

Type 30 Type 31 14 UU 64
REG.2

In 1954, Abdul Aziz, the Postmaster at Muhar­
raq, retired and the office was closed. Since 1948,
ordinary mail had been sent to Manama, and only Type 38
registered items and very few of them had nor­
mally been postmarked at Muharraq. There was !
obviously insufficient business to maintain the )
office any longer although it later re-opened in
:
1957 as a sub-office of the Bahrain State Post
Office. !

In 1959, new bilingual cancellations were intro­
duced : Types 34,35 and 36 were registered in the
G.P.O. Impression Book on June 26th and it is !
interesting to note that the Proof Strikes were
made from incorrectly assembled date-stamps.
Manama 1,2 and 4 shows the Arabic numbers 2,4 Type 39
(inverted) and 1, respectively; and Awali 1 and 2

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