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The next
important development was registration. Of the covers which passed through the
registered post system in these early days, when the registration slips were
still of the Republican type but with Turkish style cancellations, the rarest
are probably those with Kyrenia registration slips, but with Lefkosa (Nicosia)
postmarks. One of the newer offices opened by the Turkish Cypriot Postal
Administration -Degirmenlik- started the next phase in the story.
Early in January, 1974 it was issued with a rubber
hand stamp roughly 33 mm long and 12 mm wide. This was divided into two sections,
with the upper left blank for the town name in manuscript and the lower with a
capital letter R and the item number. By the end of April, all post
offices in the Turkish Cypriot zone were issued with new style registration hand stamps, normally (38 mm x 10 mm) showing the town name used in conjunction
with a second (45 mm x 13 mm) containing the registration symbol and number.
During this period, the new office opened at
Yenisehir-Nicosia, initially the registered handstamp was accompanied by the
town name in manuscript, but by the beginning of June, 1975 both Yenisehir and
the main Nicosia proper had been issued with new registration hand stamps (45 mm
x 12 mm) containing the town name and registration mark combined. In these two
cases, the R symbol was on the left, the town name on the top, and the
registration number at the bottom of the strike. Rarest item in this `rubber
stamp' period is certainly the Lefkonuk (missing F) rubber stamp dated 12
April, 1975.
By the end of June, 1975 the temporary rubber
stamp period had drawn to a close and all post offices in the Turkish Cypriot
Northern Cyprus had been issued with standardised, printed registration labels. But what a fascinating
period of development for any postal historian to work on.
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