Prior to 1866, all Turkish mail from the Holy Land was prepaid and brought by couriers to the Beirut post office. The courier who collected the letters noted (in the top left-hand corner) the weight and, underneath it, the postal charge, based on the weight and the distance from Beirut. In 1863, when stamps became available in the Ottoman Post Office, such letters were franked and cancelled in Beirut for onward dispatching. There are very few such letters of both categories recorded. The first Palestine postmarks were box type and negative seal type. The boxes were inscribed only with the name of the town. The seals were inscribed with the name of the town and with either “Posta Ve Telegraph,” “Posta Hanesi” (Post Office), “Posta Shubesi” (Branch P.O.), or “Telegraph” only. They all appear to have been randomly used on letters, telegrams and documents. Over time, more than 50 permanent and mobile post offices (for example, the mail coach on the line from Damascus to Haifa or that on the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway), branch post offices or agencies of the Ottoman Post in Palestine were established. The Turkish Post Offices were in constant competition with the Foreign Post Offices, which operated in the Holy Land under the Capitulation Agreement until 30.9.1914. With the entry of Turkey into WWI, all foreign post offices were closed down. The Turkish post offices continued to operate during the war until September, 1918