IRAN ( جمهوری اسلامی ایران)

Iran (Persian: ایران‎ Irān), also called Persia, and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران‎ Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān)), is a country in Western Asia. With 83 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 18th most populous country. Its territory spans 1,648,195 km² (636,372 sq mi), making it the second largest country in the Middle East and the 17th largest in the world. Iran has an area of 1,648,195 km² (636,372 sq mi). It lies between latitudes 24° and 40° N, and longitudes 44° and 64° E. It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia (35 km or 22 mi), the Azeri exclave of Nakhchivan (179 km or 111 mi), and the Republic of Azerbaijan (611 km or 380 mi); to the north by the Caspian Sea; to the northeast by Turkmenistan (992 km or 616 mi); to the east by Afghanistan (936 km or 582 mi) and Pakistan (909 km or 565 mi); to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; and to the west by Iraq (1,458 km or 906 mi) and Turkey (499 km or 310 mi).

Iran consists of the Iranian Plateau, with the exception of the coasts of the Caspian Sea and Khuzestan. It is one of the world's most mountainous countries, its landscape dominated by rugged mountain ranges that separate various basins or plateaux from one another. The populous western part is the most mountainous, with ranges such as the Caucasus, Zagros, and Alborz, the last containing Mount Damavand, Iran's highest point at 5,610 m which is also the highest mountain in Asia west of the Hindu Kush. The northern part of Iran is covered by the lush lowland Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests, located near the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. The eastern part consists mostly of desert basins, such as the Kavir Desert, which is the country's largest desert, and the Lut Desert, as well as some salt lakes.

The only large plains are found along the coast of the Caspian Sea and at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, where the country borders the mouth of the Arvand river. Smaller, discontinuous plains are found along the remaining coast of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman.

Iran Post is the government-owned and operated corporation responsible for providing postal services in Iran. According to Iranian government sources in 2015, the highest volume of outgoing mail it handles goes to the United States and the largest amount of incoming mail arrives from Germany, China and England. As of 2015, Iran Post had plans for cooperation with Germany's logistics firm DHL and Dutch package delivery firm TNT Express.

In 1864 British colonial post offices using India's postage stamps were opened in Muscat and Bushire. These two postal outlets proved very successful and in 1867, Anglo-Indian post offices were opened in Bandar Abbas, and Linga. In the course of time a total of 13 Indian Post Offices operated in Iran. Following a 1922 agreement between India and Iran, on 30 March 1923 all Indian postal facilities in Iran were closed, except for two exchange bureaux in Duzdab and Mirjawa that continued to function for a few more years. Russian post offices operated in 1908-18 in northern Persia using stamps of Russia.

The modern era of postal service in Iran started in 1851 with a postal reform that had no immediate effects. The success of the Anglo-Indian postal operations combined with the positive reports about postal reforms in Europe and throughout the British Empire generated a renewed interest about postal communications and telegraphy in Naser al-Din, the Shah who reigned from 1848 to 1896. In 1865 he sent a delegation to Paris to liaise with the French Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications. The news of the Iranian mission got around and a private businessman by the name of A.M. Riester submitted essays for Iranian stamps featuring a lion and a rising sun behind it, set in an oval inner frame, part of an ornamentally rich frame. Months went by and Riester decided to contact Teheran, but he was chided for taking the liberty of using national symbols for unsolicited stamps. Meanwhile, the Iranian mission had opted for essays featuring a similar design prepared by Albert Barre. These essays caught the attention of top bureaucrats and eventually that of the Shah; as a result, in 1868 imperforate stamps with basically the same design of the Barre essays were printed in Teheran in quantities varying from 3,000 to 8,000 and issued for postal use in four denominations: 1 shahi violet; 2 shais green. 4 shais blue; and 8 shais red. They have been nicknamed the Bagheri stamps, possibly in reference to the person who printed or designed them. There was no hand-stamp or date-stamp in use to cancel these stamps and their circulation and use was relatively modest. In fact, not many letters are recorded, and because of the lack of any cancelling device, it is rather problematic to determine their genuine postal use simply because it is easy to exponentially increase the value of an un-cancelled letter by just adding an adhesive or two on to it.

Bushehr or Bushire is a city on the southwestern coast of Iran, on the Persian Gulf. It is the chief seaport of the country and the administrative centre of Bushehr Province.

Bushire has long been of interest to stamp collectors, since, during their 1915 occupation, the British issued postage stamps. The occupation lasted from 8 August to 16 October, when it was terminated by agreement with the Persian government. The first stamps issued were overprints on Persian stamps of 1911 reading BUSHIRE / Under British / Occupation., issued on 15 August. The same overprint was applied in September, to the series of Persian stamps issued in 1915. All of these overprints are uncommon, the cheapest costing US$25.

The registered letters are allowed by specially printed packet and provided by Iran Post. But my  friend Abdullah tried to get postmark on covers and sent back my cover with special request from post office from his local town. Because of high inflation, we cannot affix enough stamps to cover the postage, so they postmark with franking machine after paying the amount. Stamps printed based on the local postage rate and requirements. The cover sent on July 13, 2015, I received on July 27, 2015.