The Russian post offices in the Ottoman Empire were a set of post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

s operated by Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 in various cities of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 from the late 18th century until September 1914.

Earliest mails

The earliest mail service between St Petersburg and Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 consisted of diplomatic pouches carried from 1721 on. The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca

Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca

The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca was signed on 21 July 1774, in Küçük Kaynarca , Dobruja between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire after the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the...

 in 1774 provided for a regular mail service, for which a consular post office was established in Constantinople. It began using handstamped postal marking

Postal marking

A postal marking is any kind of annotation applied to a letter by a postal service. The most common types are postmarks and cancellations; almost every letter will have those. Less common types include forwarding addresses, routing annotations, warnings, postage due notices and explanations, such...

s around 1830. Beginning in 1779 a mail boat circulated between Constantinople and Kherson

Kherson

Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...

, and 1781 saw the establishment of an overland route through Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

 to Bratzlav.

In 1856, the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company

Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company

The Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company of Odessa was one of the biggest joint stock steamship companies in Imperial Russia. It was established in 1856 and ceased to exist in 1918 due to nationalization after the revolution in Russia...

 (Russkoe Obschchestvo Parokhodstva i Torgovli or РОПиТ, ROPiT) took over postal operations. It handled mail service between the various offices, and funneled mail to the rest of Russia through Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

. The ROPiT offices received a status equivalent to regular Russian post offices in 1863.

First stamps

The first postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

 of the offices was a large square design issued in 1863 and valued at six kopecks. This type is today rare, as were the normal-sized 2k and 20k stamps issued in 1865, which included a sailing ship along with the imperial coat of arms, and "ROPiT" in the inscription. A similar but better-executed design appeared in 1866.

Beginning in 1868, ROPiT switched to a design consisting of a large number of value in the center. As with the regular Russian stamps, they were originally printed on horizontally-laid paper

Laid paper

Laid paper is a type of paper having a ribbed texture imparted by the manufacturing process. In the 19th century its use diminished as it was largely supplanted by wove paper...

, and on vertically-laid paper from 1872 on. Overprint

Overprint

An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...

s for 8 kopeck and 7 kopeck values were used in 1876 and 1879. The colors were changed in 1879, and again in 1884, matching the contemporaneous stamps of Russia.

Beginning in 1900, the printing of special stamps was abandoned, in conjunction with the use of the local Ottoman currency of para

Para (currency)

The para was a former currency of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Montenegro and Albania, and is the current subunit, although rarely used, of the Serbian dinar....

s and piastre

Piastre

The piastre or piaster refers to a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for 'thin metal plate'. The name was applied to Spanish and Latin American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venetian traders in the Levant in the 16th century.These pesos, minted continually for...

s. Instead, regular Russian stamps were surcharged.

Anniversary stamps

In 1909, a 50th-anniversary commemorative issue was produced by substituting the ROPiT sailing ship logo in the place of the imperial eagle. 1909 also saw the issuance of stamps overprinted with the names of cities.