The first issue of Jordan contains some very rare stamps. The entire Middle East was administered by the Turks as part of their Empire until the end of WW II. Turkey was on the wrong side of that war, supporting Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Accordingly, the British supported insurrectionary Middle east forces during WW I against the Turks, including those led by Lawrence of Arabia. Post WW I, the Middle East was a political mess-a large vacuum and not many strong players for power. The British and French imposed their African type solution as they had after the scramble for Africa in the late Nineteenth Century (just drawing borders on a map) and this time the solution was even worse for the West than the African debacle. The nation states of Jordan and Iraq lack internal cohesiveness and are hard to govern (we know that in Iraq and will find that out in Jordan if King Abdullah is ever overthrown). In the case of Jordan, the philately is very difficult. About one hundred different issues exist overprinted on early Palestine stamps issued between 1922-1923. These issues contain some of the rarest stamps in all of our hobby. Nearly all are seldom seen and the one pictured above ( #100) is a great rarity and has a Peter Holcombe certificate. There were only eighty of this stamp issued and if it was a US stamp it would sell for a hundred grand. It will be in our December Auction and as it catalogs $2250 it is likely to sell for as little as $1000.