Hatay collection - Complete

Here is a collection I finally got listed, from a stack of old album pages I meant to get to "some day."  I knew I had two pages of stamps from Hatay but was pleasantly surprised to see that it was the complete country -- every stamp they issued in their short history -- mint hinged.

The individual sets list for $25 to $80 each.

I always liked that they included a set of maps, showing where this mysterious new country could be found ... except that it's one of the least useful sets of maps in philatelic history.  I suppose the dotted line is meant to be the border, but there isn't a single named town.  It's just a bunch of lines.

Wikipedia has a detailed article explaining this phase of history in the area.  The area was previously called the "Sanjak of Alexandretta", which stamp collectors will recognize right away.  That pictorial set says "2_Eylul_1938", and sure enough, 2 SEP 1938 is the date of the decree that changed Alexandretta to the Hatay State.

By 7 July 1939, the area had been fully annexed by Turkey, and the French Mandate was dissolved, making this one of the shortest lived "dead countries" in philatelic history.