Description and research notes
Official Egyptian internal-security and licensing document dated 1907, printed on pale beige government stock with a pre-ruled bilingual Arabic–French layout. The sheet contains early Khedivial administrative headings at top right (وزارة الداخلية – قسم الضبط) and preprinted lines for applicant name, profession, address, and licensing purpose. All fields are completed in dark brown dip-pen ink with flowing early 20th-century handwriting. Faint pencil docketing is present along the upper margin, typical of internal registry handling.
Affixed at the upper left are two examples of Egypt’s First-Issue adhesive revenues: one 1 millieme (UNE PIASTRE) and one 2 milliemes (DEUX PIASTRES), printed in green with the large central oval framing the Khedivial tughra and the GOVERNMENT OF EGYPT bilingual banner. Both stamps remain fresh in color, retaining full perforations. Each is tied to the paper by a clear magenta manuscript cancellation across the top ("١٩٠٧"), a style used only during the earliest months of adhesive fiscal use. The cancellation touches the design but preserves all internal details of the frame and value tablets.
The document’s main text consists of several lines of handwritten Arabic detailing the purpose of the request, location information, and the official acceptance notation. The paper displays natural toning toward the outer edges, minor corner wear, and one vertical filing fold, but no tears, reductions, or punch cancellations. The original margin remains intact on all sides.
These two adhesives belong to the very first adhesive revenue issue ever used in Egypt. Before this period, all fiscal charges were paid on pre-embossed stamped paper; the introduction of gummed revenue stamps marked the start of a completely new system. Only the 1m and 2m values were produced during this initial experimental rollout, reflecting a short-lived transitional phase with inherently limited printing and distribution. Because early offices routinely discarded or destroyed processed paperwork, full documents from this first generation—especially those retaining multiple values used together as originally intended—survive at extremely low rates.
Egypt’s transition from stamped paper to adhesive fiscal stamps occurred during a period of rapid administrative modernization. By the early 1900s, the Ministry of Interior was reorganising legal, civil, and security documentation to match European-style bureaucratic standards while still relying heavily on Arabic-language chancery practice. Adhesive revenues were introduced to streamline fee collection, reduce fraud, simplify accounting, and standardise records across provincial and urban offices. The First-Issue adhesives were printed in limited quantities to test the new system, and their use was restricted to select departments until the procedure proved reliable.
Because Egyptian administrative offices were extremely active at this time—processing identity papers, travel permits, residency documents, commercial certifications, and licensing requests—large volumes of paperwork were routinely produced and then destroyed after verification. Adhesive stamps were often removed, reused, or lost to deterioration. As a result, intact early fiscal documents with tied First-Issue adhesives are almost nonexistent today. Surviving examples offer rare insight into how Egyptian legal and internal-security systems functioned at the moment they adopted modern fiscal methods.
The presence of both First-Issue values on one complete, uncut document places this example at the foundation of Egypt’s modern fiscal system. Intact, tied, and unrepaired First-Issue usages are virtually never encountered, and this specimen stands among the strongest and most complete surviving documents from the earliest phase of Egypt’s adhesive revenue administration.