The world's first postage stamp to depict oil wells (above) was issued in
1919 by the National Republic of Azerbaijan. The main theme of these
stamps, however, was the Baku Temple of Eternal Fires, a relatively
modern structure that continues the ancient Zoroastrian tradition of fire
temples at which the faithful worshipped. The temple, and the nearby
producing wells are at the site of natural oil and gas seeps. These early
lithographed stamps were issued only in imperforate form and color
registration is commonly quite poor (see below).

© Peter A. Scholle, 2000

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