Pre-stamp letters
The Tyrnau postmaster-stamped letter is unique in that it is one of the earliest postal items to bear a city stamp. It was dispatched in Nagyszombat (Tyrnau in German) in 1752. This is when the stagecoach services introduced by Maria Theresa called diligence were launched in Hungary. The introduction of time- and place-bound services, together with the establishment of a single set of rules slowly turned the postal service into a formalised operation. The first city stamps with the inscriptions Debreczin, Tokay and Tyrnau were issued that year.
Since there was no single regulation, initial stamps came in a variety of shapes, forms and colours, and because their design was entirely left to the postmaster’s imagination, they are called postmaster stamps. A variety of stamps of different shapes and forms are available from the following period. Negative stamp impressions are particularly interesting and valuable, with letters and drawings in white on a black background. Postmaster city stamps, which were used sporadically from 1752 onwards were often replaced by a handwritten city record.
Cholera letters
The ravaging cholera outbreak from India reached Hungary’s borders in 1830. The disease arrived from Galicia, so the border was closed at the end of the year, but was re-opened shortly afterwards. By the time the border was closed again in May 1831, it was already too late: the contagious disease had reached the big cities along through river raftsmen and merchants. To prevent the spread of the epidemic, the authorities set up a cordon around the cities, which could only be crossed at controlled crossing points (passes). Bags of letters were opened and efforts were made to disinfect postal items. They were pierced with a needle or a suitable instrument and smoked over vinegar steam. If the letter has successfully passed this procedure, a stamp on the back of the letter was sometimes used to confirm disinfection.
Halved Varannó kreutzer
The “Austrian post in Hungary” period lasted until 1 May 1867, when the Hungarian Post became independent. Hungarian stamps of the 1867 issue can be identified by their rough printing and the imprint of the Hungarian place of dispatch stamp, as the stamp image does not show any indication of the Hungarian nature of the issue yet. The gradual development towards full independence is illustrated by the stamp issues of the period. By mutual agreement, the postal administrations of both countries put the stamps of the same design into circulation on 1 June 1867.
Whether this series could be considered the first Hungarian stamp was long debated in Hungarian postal circles, as well as among Austrian and Hungarian philatelists. Today, it is clearly accepted that copies that can be proven to have been used in Hungary (were cancelled with a Hungarian stamp) are considered Hungarian stamps. Hungarian and international stamp catalogues also indicate the special status of the stamp series. Today, they are therefore considered the first stamps made to order in Hungary, as opposed to the 1871 issue, which we call the first stamps produced in Hungary.
The special feature of the long-distance letter postage pre-paid with the 1867 issue stamp displayed here is that the 5 kreutzer fare was paid with 2x2 kreutzer and a halved 2 kreutzer, the latter was accepted as 1 kreutzer.
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Stamp design by Mór Than
From a philatelic point of view, the most significant event of the 1848–49 War of Independence was the creation of the first design for a Hungarian postage stamp. The inner stamp image depicts the Hungarian middle coat of arms supplemented with the coat of arms of Transylvania, surrounded by the Hungarian State Post in a curved form, which is framed by wheat sheafs. The artwork is a simple black ink drawing, but the printing instructions, which are also obviously explained with arrows, say that the outer frame drawing should have been printed in red and the inner stamp image in green. Together with the white colour of the paper, this would have rendered the generally accepted national colours of the time. The fact that the graphic was indeed produced by a printer is confirmed by the “Lieber Herr Urschitz! Das hab’ auch ich gethan. Than M.” inscription on the back of the paper. Meaning: Dear Mr. Urschitz, Here we go, I completed it. The artwork was preserved by Jakab Urschitz, the master engineer of the Landerer printing house in a Petőfi volume until his death, and came into the possession of a well-known collector and philatelic publisher, János Emánuel Jászai through family connections. Following expert examinations, private prints were made of the printing plate reconstructed from the ink drawing, based on the instructions for the colours, which truly show what the first Hungarian stamp would have looked like, if it could have been produced under more peaceful circumstances.
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Tokaji perforation
The first stamp series consisted of five denominations and was not perforated. The postal sheet contained 64 stamp images, printed in 8x8 format, whose pieces were cut out of the sheet by the postmaster with scissors based on the number of stamps required. However, the procedure did not seem to be effective for a postal employee named Ferenc Bazonyi, who first worked in Homonna and then in Tokaj under postmaster György Szerviczky. It is assumed that he used dough cutter, or as others assume, a tracer, to press through the spaces between the stamp images, so that the paper could be easily torn in a dashed line. The stamps separated by this technique between 1852 and 1854, and the letters postage pre-paid by using such stamps are extremely valuable rarities. Because the innovator used a non-regular circular perforation on the paper, it is accepted that the world’s first private serration is called “Tokaji perforation”—not “Tokaji serration”. The Hungarian Post was ahead of his time with this solution, as serration was not used in printing in England until 1854, and the first serrated (perforated) postage stamp was issued in the Austrian Empire—including Hungary—in 1858.
Temporary use in Szigetvár
When the 5 kreutzer stamp supply was running out, Postmaster Adolf Hőnig and post office employee Imre Pethő, working in Szigetvár, resorted to a temporary solution: they used the surplus 5 kreutzer stamps cut from the 5 kreutzer envelopes as stamps. Since this procedure was prohibited by a decree promulgated in 1861 and reinforced on 10 April 1866, it was circumvented by using a self-made 9 ½ guillotine serration device on stamps between September 1869 and September 1870. The “Temporary use in Szigetvár”, which now looked like a real stamp, and is a rarity even as a soaked off stamp, is displayed in the Stamp Museum together with a 10 kreutzer denomination on a so-called “colourful postage pre-paid” letter cutout.
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Kőbánya letter, 1867
An outstanding rarity is the first stamp considered to be issued by the Hungarian postal administration, with a misprinted number stamp from 1867. However, one of the first printing plates of the 5 korona stamp mistakenly included a 3 korona printing block as well. The sheets printed with this plate therefore contained a misprint, a red 3 kreutzer. The sheets containing the misprint were all used in Hungary from August to mid-October 1867. Known examples are stamped Brukenau (Hidasliget), Detta, G.Becskerek (Nagybecskerek) and Kőbánya. Three of the used misprints and one found on a letter fragment were already known in literature in the first third of the century. However, the surviving misprints on a complete postal item stamped “Kőbánya”, were only discovered in 1938. The business correspondence of the Pfeiffer family, who had moved from Vienna to Budapest, was bought in its entirety by a Hungarian stamp collector, László Gál, who found the two letters with Kőbánya stamps, which had been postage pre-paid by a false overprint, among the documents. One of these later came into the possession of György Kún, and later the Austrian collector Dr. Anton Jerger, who described the letter in his book Frankaturen, mentioning that he knew of the existence of another specimen. The other specimen bearing the stamp of 25 August 1867 was found as part of the collection of Dr. Károly Pákozdy in 1997, who, according to a pencil note and family memories, probably bought it for 20,000 pengő in 1943, together with a flawless 5 kreutzer postage pre-paid letter.
The latter was purchased jointly by the Hungarian Post and the Hungarian Development Bank at the Hungarofila auction on 6 December 1997. The letter has been deposited in the Stamp Museum in Budapest in order to be a common treasure for all, not just a lucky collector.
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First printed 2 kreutzer and Sperati counterfeits
The first stamps to be produced in Hungary were planned to be copperplate-printed, but the copperplate printing presses ordered from Würzburg only arrived at the printing house in July 1871. As the original date of issue was January 1871, the Post decided that the stamps should be temporarily produced using stone-based lithography. The engraving prepared for the original intaglio process had to be “tuned” to the stone-based lithographic technique in a hurry. The imperfect execution of the process, however, meant that the approximately 8 million stamps printed by 27 January 1871 did not satisfy quality requirements. The portrait of Franz Joseph on the stamp image had ugly, smallpox-like spots on its face. Defective products were destroyed and production was restarted. Most probably some of the 2,100 pieces of spot-printed 2 kreutzer sheets destined for scrapping avoided destruction, because two years later a few were used with a Pest stamp. As far as we know today, there are about three dozen of these rarities held by collectors. The only complete print that has been postage pre-paid is in the possession of the Stamp Museum.
Italian-born counterfeiter Jean de Sperati, also known as the “Rubens of philatelic forgers” forged around 450 stamps from nearly 100 countries to an artistic standard during his “creative” period of around two decades. His copies were so good that they fooled many philatelic experts of the first half of the 20th century. His repertoire certainly also included Hungarian stamps. As far as we know, he made counterfeits of the 2, 3, 10 and 15 kreutzer denominations issued in 1871.
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Inverted Madonna
The ten denominations of the 1921/25 Crowned Madonna stamp series were produced in two colours by book printing. Accordingly, the stamps were printed in two phases, first the outer frame drawing, then the paper was reinserted into the machine, and in the second phase the inner stamp image was printed in a different colour. One of the sheets of the 5000 korona denomination was, most probably after inspecting the first phase results, was reinserted into the machine in the wrong direction. The stamp is basically symmetrical, but the circular central part depicting Madonna is upside down and inverted. The defect was not striking at a superficial glance, the defective sheet passed inspection and was sold in a tobacco shop in Budapest. Someone at the nearby Budapest Workers’ Insurance Institute noticed that he was holding an irregular stamp in January 1925. Further sales were banned immediately after the discovery, but almost all the pieces had been sold by then.
Nagymánya misprints
Stamps commemorating the Hungarian-inhabited areas of the Highlands reannexed as a result of the first Vienna decision of 2 November 1938 are versions of the two denominations of the St. Stephen’s series issued in early 1938 printed in different colours, with the inscription “HAZATÉRÉS 19-38” (HOMECOMING 19-38) in red.
A single 70 fillér sheet is missing the overprint. This sheet was sent to the post office of Nagymánya in the Highlands on 5 April 1939, and 62 copies had already been sold when the discrepancy was discovered on 20 May. The Royal Hungarian Post withdrew the remaining copies and deposited them with the Stamp Museum. You can see 24 of them in one block on display today. Its value is inestimable, but it is definitely the most highly valued Hungarian philatelic object. In addition, no even correlation is known. There are two other specimens in the museum, one of which is on the only complete package delivery note.
Collectors may have dozens of other used items, including two complete registered letters and a parcel delivery note slip. The number of specimens without postal marks cannot be high either, we currently know of 3-4 copies.
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Victory stamp proofs, 1954
Unbeaten since 1950 and Olympic champions in 1952, the Hungarian national football team, the Golden Team, were the clear prospective winners of the 1954 World Cup. The Hungarian Post intended to commemorate the expected great triumph with a stamp, which was intended to be sold in the days after the final. During the preparations, proofs were printed with two different primary colours. Designer József Vertel, proposed the turquoise blue version on 2 July, two days before the final. Director Rezső Hódos of the Hungarian Philatelic Company signed the green one the next day, kind of indicating his position. Printing machines started on the day of the final, 4 July. However, the team was unexpectedly defeated by West Germany. When the match was over, the red colour had not been applied to the unglued sheets yet. In the wake of the defeat, the State Protection Authority raided the State Printing House and stopped production. They even tried to eliminate all traces of the intention to issue stamps; therefore, no records of the project have survived. Semi-finished 25 sheets were burnt in the furnace of the printing house.
However, a few sheets were “saved” by brave printers for the future generations, those were later serrated and glued. These colour-defective specimens emerged in the markets of West Germany in the 1960s and are treasured by collectors nowadays. Full-colour proofs, however, exist only in the Stamp Museum’s collection.