Eritrea

Eritrea is a country in northeastern Africa. In the 19th century, Egypt had post offices in the region. Italy opened post offices in Assab (1883-93) and Massawa (1885-93) using general colonial issues.

Italian colony
 File:Eritrea ovpt. A.webp|1892 2c value. File:Eritrea elephant.jpg|1922 2c surcharge on Italian Somaliland stamp. File:Eritrea camel.A.webp|1934 2c pictorial. 
 * In 1889, it was made an Italian colony. Its first stamps were issued in 1892, overprinted Colonia Eritrea. Italian definitives that followed were similarly oveprinted.
 * In 1910, its first country-specific stamps were issued, inscribed REGNO D'ITALIA / COLONIA ERITREA.
 * Beginning in 1921, it used Italian stamps overprinted ERITREA, including commemoratives, airmails, semipostals, special deliveries, parcel post stamps and postage dues.
 * In 1930, a series of pictorials was released inscribed ERITREA.
 * More Italian overprinted sets and country-specific issues continued until 1934.
 * In 1936, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland were united into Italian East Africa. See: Italian East Africa.

Authorized delivery
 File:Erit 10c RA.jpg 

Parcel post




Postage due
 File:Erit 10c due.jpg|1920 10c value File:Erit 5L due (1).jpg|1920 5L value 

Special delivery




Post World War II
 File:Eritrea 1978.jpg|1978 10c 8th anniversary of revolution. File:Eritrea indep.jpg|1978 1b future of Eritrea. File:Eritrea silver jub.jpg|2016 7Nfa silver jubilee. 
 * After British occupation until 1952, Eritrea was attached to Ethiopia.
 * Liberation movements rose in Eritrea. Two provisional sets were issued in 1978 for use in rebel-occupied areas, inscribed POSTE ERITREA LIBERA.
 * In the 1980s, many bogus issues in popular topics appeared. See below.
 * After a 30-year war for independence, Eritrean forces joined rebels in Ethiopia to overthrow its government. After a referendum, Eritrea gained independence in 1993. Its first stamps were issued in April with bilingual inscriptions with "Ethiopia" in Latin and Amharic scripts.
 * Since then, Eritrea's genuine stamp issuing program has been quite limited. Meanwhile since about 2000, more bogus issues were being offered, inscribed POSTE ERITREA, or ERITREA with no Amharic inscription. See below.

Bogus issues
Beginning in 1978, Clive Feigenbaum's printing concerns began cranking out bogus issues starting with British royal events topics/themes. If you are familiar with the other creations of the time like Eynhallow and Isö, the painting artwork is in the same style as those. In contrast, the real Eritrea has had and continues to have an extremely conservative issue policy and concentrates on Eritrean matters for their stamp designs.

The bogus releases expanded to a flood of other topicals now in photos or artwork in other styles. As time went by, there were a few notable differences like using the old two-vertical-line dollar sign instead of "$" or leaving out a currency sign or abbreviation completely. See: the Golowes illegal stamps site for Eritrea
 * By about 2001, bogus "stamps" were inscribed in NFA currency like genuine stamps but can be recognized by subject matter purely Western and non-Eritrean including nudes and Western models. Many have a Rotary or Boy Scouts logo added for no good reason.
 * In 2005, bogus " had their currency expressed as "Na", whatever that is.
 * A 2013 set has currency as "NFK".
 * In 2014, issues from a new source appeared with currency expressed as "ERN". Meanwhile, the real Eritrea issued no new stamps at all in 2014.
 * In 2017, bogus issues began using "NFA" or "N" as a currency again, but also again showing non-Eritrean subjects/topics. Again, the real Eritrea issued no new stamps 2017-2021.



