According to Wikipedia, the British Mandate for Palestine, also known as the Mandate for Palestine or the Palestine Mandate, was a League of Nations mandate for the territory that had formerly constituted the Ottoman Empire sanjaks of Nablus, Acre, the Southern part of the Vilayet of Syria, the Southern portion of the Beirut Vilayet, and the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, prior to the Armistice of Mudros.

The draft of the Mandate for Palestine was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922, supplemented via the 16 September 1922 Trans-Jordan memorandum and then came into effect on 29 September 1923, following the ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne, with the United Kingdom as the administering mandatory.

The Mandate terminated on 14 May 1948. Prior to termination, on 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, which dealt with the future government of Palestine. It envisaged the creation of separate Jewish and Arab states operating under economic union with Jerusalem being transferred to UN trusteeship. On the last day of the Mandate, the creation of the State of Israel was proclaimed.

Stamps for the Palestine Mandate were initially E.E.F. (Egyptian Expeditionary Forces) stamps that were created prior to the official start of the Mandate in 1918 and were later overprinted in 1920. This set of stamps was replaced by a set created specifically for the Palestine Mandate in 1927. The stamps depicted various local landmarks and were printed by Harrison & Sons in London. This pictorial set was used until the Mandate was terminated in 1948.

Identifying the 1927 Pictorial issues is a matter of differentiating between the four different paper types, and sorting the colors and some perforation varieties for a few issues. All of the stamps were issued on paper watermarked Multiple Script CA, so you don't have to identify the watermarks to sort these stamps.

The primary factor that makes identifying the Pictorial set so interesting is the four paper types that were used in printing the stamps. They are very distinctive and can be easily identified and sorted. They are listed below:

1. Thin paper - used for the initial 1927 printings.
2. Thick paper with Vertical Ribbing - used for printings beginning in 1928 thru 1932.
3. Thick paper with Horizontal Ribbing - used for 1937 printings.
4. Wove, white paper - used for printings beginning in 1936 until the end of the Mandate.

Illustrations of these papers and tips on how to find an example are shown below.

Once you have determined the paper type, the next step is to sort the colors. Color shades can be difficult to sort, especially when you only have a couple of stamps to compare. They typically occur when the stamps are printed after the initial printing. Today we have computer color matching, but during this time it was done by hand with components that might differ from the original ink formula. I like to place the stamps against black and then white paper and view them under a strong light. The images shown attempt to show the colors, but they do not show them as well as viewing the stamps in person. So use the images as relative indicators.

Other than the coil issues, all of the stamps were perforated 13.5 x 14.5. The coil issues for the 5m and 10m issues were perforated 14.5 x 14. Additional coils were issued with the typical perforation of 13.5 x 14.5. These can only be identified by noticing the shaved perfs on the sides or by what is called a coil join. Coil stamps were cut into vertical strips of 10 and were connected by gluing the top margin of the new strip to the 10th stamp of the preceding strip. Ultimately this method created a roll of stamps that could be placed into the dispensing machine. Gibbons indicates that paste-up coils exist for the 2m, 3m, 5m, and 15m values. I have found examples of the 5m and 15m issues, but am still looking for examples of the 2m and 3m values.

The catalog numbers are from the 2008 Commonwealth Catalogue (CW), the 2011 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue (SG) and the 2011 Scott catalog (ST). Gibbons Stamp Monthly indicated that some of the Palestine Mandate Pictorial issues were added to the Catalogue in the 2018 edition. If you have a copy please let us know about the changes. The Commonwealth Catalogue does not list the Thin Paper issues and a few of the early color printings that were issued before the reign of King George VI. In those cases, NL (not listed) will be noted for the CW listing. The color descriptions and paper dates are from the 2010 Bale Palestine Specialized Catalogue of the Stamps and Postal History of the Palestine Mandate, unless they do not list the stamp. In that case the Gibbons description was used. Please order a Commonwealth Catalogue from Murray Payne. You can access all of the publishers using the "Links to British Colonial Stamp Sites" at the bottom of this page. I do not have a current source for the Bale Catalogue, so please feel free to supply one if you have it.

For the collector who wants to specialize in this issue, various proofs, color trials, specimens, control block, gutter blocks, and perfined (“APC” and “KKL”) varieties of the Pictorials exist. This is in addition to a number of print errors and varieties. Please see the Bale Catalogue for information on these options.

The images were saved in a larger size and at a higher resolution so you can more easily see the details used in sorting them. Please be patient if it takes a few minutes for this page to load.

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This article was written to help you identify your stamps.
Please feel free to ask a question, or include a correction.