1866 - Egypt's #7

And finally... roll of the drums... here's the highest value of the lot, the 10pi Slate. This one's worth £275 in mint condition or a bargain £250 if you find a used one.

Referring to the Stanley Gibbons Catalogue, Part 19, 6th Edition, it is interesting to note that these first Egyptian stamps were actually printed in Genoa, Italy by the Pellas Brothers. They (the stamps, not the Brothers!) are overprinted in Turkish, the lowest group of characters showing the stamp value.

And why, you may ask, are Egyptian stamps overprinted in Turkish? Well, that's because Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517 and remained more or less under Turkish rule until Mohammed Ali became governor in 1805. He established a dynasty of governors with only nominal allegiance to the Sultan of Turkey until 1914.