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Albania's separate stamp issues were an outcome of the Balkan Wars. The first were created in 1913 by overprinting Turkish stamps with a device of a double-headed eagle and the word SHQIPENIE (Fig. 330). Since then four or five new issues have appeared, crude labels of circular handstamp pattern (Fig. 331) with the value typewritten. More recently a series has appeared depicting Skanderbeg, the warrior hero of the Albanians, and these were overprinted in March, 1914, with an inscription "7 Mars. 1467. rroftë mbreti. 1914" to commemorate
the arrival of Prince William of Wied as Mpret. The year 1467 was the date of the death of Skanderbeg.
332
333 334
The "autonomous state of Epirus," another outcome of the Balkan troubles, has given us some quaint stamps. The first was the skull and cross-bones issue ([Fig. 332]), the inscriptions on which read "Liberty or death—Defence of the fatherland—Lepta 10." This was succeeded by a more ambitiously designed stamp (Fig. 333) showing an evzone or light infantryman in the act of firing. The simple name "Epirus" was extended to "Autonomous Epirus" (Fig. 334). Other crude issues have appeared in Epirote districts, as yet not very satisfactorily authenticated. These include Koritza (Fig. 335) and Moschopolis (Fig. 336), both places in lower Albania.