Description: This is an official government service stamp from the Republic of Turkey, created by applying a heavy black overprint onto an existing definitive stamp. The base stamp features a detailed portrait of İsmet İnönü, the second President of Turkey, with a large national crescent moon and star emblem positioned directly over his forehead. The bottom of the design reads "TÜRKİYE POSTALARI," and the top-left corner bears the face value denomination "1 Krş" (1 Kuruş). Transforming its function for restricted administrative use, the thick black overprint features the word "RESMÎ" framed by two solid, parallel horizontal bar lines that deliberately anchor the text across the center of the portrait.
Circa: 1957
Condition: Used - Hinged
Notes:
Rather than engraving an entirely new stamp series, the Turkish postal administration regularly repurposed existing stocks of standard civilian stamps by overprinting them with "Resmî" to fulfill government-only mailing requirements. This specific underlying portrait highlights İsmet İnönü, a crucial military general and political leader who served alongside Mustafa Kemal Atatürk during the foundation of the modern republic. Collectors highly prize overprint varieties like this one, closely scrutinizing the placement, intensity, and alignment of the black ink overlay to detect anomalies. Plate varieties where the "Resmî" lettering is shifted upward, inverted, or notably faint are heavily collected, as multiple print runs over various base stocks yielded minor variations across sheets.