EGYPT

EGYPT / مِصر

Nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, July 26, 1956.
Map of the Suez Canal and ship.
Stamp issued on 26.09.1956.
Face value: 10 milliemes of Egyptian pound.
Printing: Photogravure.
Print: 2,071,750 copies.
Size: 28 x 60 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 495.
- Scott No. 386.
- StampWorld No. 502.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 517.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 384.

On July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser decided to nationalize the canal to finance the construction of the Aswan Dam. The measure was received with indignation by France and the United Kingdom, the main shareholders of the Suez Canal, and on October 29 of that same year the so-called Sinai War broke out. Egypt, in retaliation, sank forty ships in the canal, causing its blockade. At the beginning of 1957, after the intervention of the UN, the withdrawal of the European powers and Israel was completed and the canal could be reopened.