History of Iran in the Late-19 – 20 Century and Its Reflection in Iranian Postage Stamps

The design of the first postage stamps of Iran (that time Persia) issued in 1865 – 1875 was both simple and elegant. It depicted the official Persian coat of arms: a lion holding a sword in its paw with the rising sun in the background. The appearing of this picture on the first Iranian stamps was determined by their specific perception as a legal tender, i.e. as a certain type of currency (it is not a mere coincidence that the forgery of postage stamps in the Qajar era was widely spread). This, in turn, attributed to Iranian stamps a dual role played by money in the Middle East since immemorial times: they become both a means of paying and a means of official political propaganda through which the authorities of the country declared their right to rule and influenced popular opinion. Thus, it is noteworthy that the issuing of its own postage stamps was one of the first moves of almost every revolutionary movement in Persia or Iran. For instance, there are so-called definitive stamps (as opposed to commemorative stamps they are used for everyday postage and are usually produced to meet current postal rates) left by Sattar Khan, Seyed Abdol Hossein Mojtahed, Mohammda Khiabani and Mirza Kuchek Khan movements. As a result, postage stamps became a very interesting historical evidence giving the detailed description of political developments in Persia and Iran during the last 150 years. This study traces the change and evolution of the main themes of pictures appeared on Iranian postage stamps during 1875 – 2000. The research comes to a conclusion that, irrelatively to the historical period, there were three main topics appearing on them: symbols of power, current achievements and images of glorious past. The rest subjects were concentrated around them.