Rare foreign stamps in the Stamp Museum’s collection
Column 1
Cavallino stamps (1819, Italy)
Attempts to simplify mail systems preceded the introduction of the stamp in Great Britain in 1840. Cavallino is a tax stamp depicting a rider, which had to be printed on the letters delivered by private post offices in the former Kingdom of Sardinia. The Italian name stands for little horse or little rider, hence the name of the tax stamp.
Cavallino stamps were issued in three denominations and were mandatory between 1819 and 1836. Even though the tax stamp was not meant to exempt the letter from delivery charges, but to justify the payment of postage tax, many people consider it to be the first form with a postage stamp.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the State Post Office in Sardinia considered the forwarding of all kinds of mail to be under its jurisdiction; therefore, the forwarding of all letters had to be authorised by the Post Office. The authorisation was granted at the office for a small amount of money, and payment was certified by a stamp affixed to the letter. However, this was overly time-consuming for the couriers, so special auxiliary lettersheets had to be printed, suitable for direct forwarding by the Post Office. This postage prepaid product was available to the general public in post offices and tobacco shops. The text was written on the inner side of the lettersheet and it was folded in a way that the value stamp—the cavallino itself—was visible on the title page. The cavallinos printed in blue ink are found on auxiliary lettersheets issued from 1 January 1819, while the embossed ones appear on the final lettersheets. The latter version of lettersheets appeared in the market as of 13 November 1819.
Black Penny (Great Britain, 1840)
Black Penny, the world’s first stamp depicted Queen Victoria and was issued in Great Britain in 1840. Whenever we put a stamp on an envelope, we still indicate that the full postage fee was pre-paid in a single amount.
Since the British post office of the Victorian era was operating with great difficulty and at a loss, the British Treasury launched a public tender in 1837: who has an idea to reform its operations? The tender was won by Rowland Hill, a gentleman who had previously worked as a village schoolteacher, who also undertook the task of designing the stamp. This is how the postage stamp featuring the head of Queen Victoria was created with a sophisticated design that was difficult to counterfeit. Since Great Britain was the only stamp issuer at that time, it did not make sense to indicate the state. By tradition, the British stamps still lack the inscription, the portrait of the reigning monarch serves as a means of identification. Hill’s postal reforms quickly multiplied the turnover and revenue of the British Post, and Hill received a title of nobility from the Queen, was appointed Director General of the British Post, and awarded a medal and assets.
What is the story of Rowland Hill and the young girl that we all know, but as typically in the case of legends, we all know a slightly different version? Once upon a time, the would-be inventor of the stamp was travelling in a stagecoach, which carried passengers in England along with postal items. He witnessed that at one of the stations, the postman tried to deliver a letter to the innkeeper’s daughter, but the young lady turned the item around and returned it to the postman, saying she would not accept it. As the Post operated in a full postage due system, this meant that the service was provided free of charge, if the recipient should have paid for the postage. But Rowland Hill was struck by the fact, since they were not living in a time when receiving a letter was an ordinary thing.
Therefore, the story goes, he took her aside and questioned her until she blushed and confessed that she and her fiancé in the other town sent letters to each other by drawing agreed marks on the outside of the envelope. She did not even need to open it to know exactly what her sweetheart wrote, which allowed them to send and receive letters for free. Legend has it that this was the idea behind the introduction of a stamp, as the compulsory pre-paid postage scheme prevented this type of manipulation. The truth of the story, however, is that such abuses did indeed occur before the new system of pre-paid postage was introduced.
Mercury-headed newspaper stamp – Red Mercury (Austria, 1856)
The first newspaper stamps in the world were issued by Austria in 1851, but that’s not why they are so valuable. The value of a stamp is mainly based on its rarity. However, few of the used newspaper stamps survived, as they were glued to attach the title tape to the newspaper, so they usually broke when the newspaper was torn open. It was not available to individuals at the post office, but was purchased in sheets by newspaper publishing houses.
The denomination of the Mercury-headed newspaper stamps valid from 1 January 1851 was at that time indicated only by their colour: the blue 0.6 kreutzer was valid for one newspaper, the yellow 6 kreutzer for ten and the pink 30 kreutzer for the postage pre-payment of 50 newspapers.
Blue stamps could be turned yellow by chemicals relatively easily, which is how counterfeiters obtained tenfold denominations. Therefore, to prevent counterfeiting at the expense of the post office, the vermilion version was put into circulation in 1856 in a 6 kreutzer denomination, and since only a very small number were produced in the first place, the surviving copies of the Red Mercury are considered to be a world rarity.
Column 2
Swiss cantonal stamps (1843, 1845)
Switzerland became the fourth country in the world to issue a stamp in 1843. As the country is made up of several cantons, they had their own postal administration and initially issued their own stamps, acting as a kind of mini-state.
The first cantonal stamps were issued in Zurich in denominations of 4 and 6 rappen, for local and intra-cantonal postage, using a stone printing process. To prevent counterfeiting, the papers used were striped horizontally in red and overprinted in black. These became the first bicolour stamps in stamp history.
The stamp known as the Double Geneva was printed on green paper, also in 1843. The pair of stamps consists of two stamps, each with a denomination of 5 centimes, which were separately valid for local postage pre-payment. It included a new feature, the coat of arms of the issuing province.
The stamp issued in the canton of Basel in 1845 was not part of a series and was issued in a single denomination.
The drawing was designed by architect Melchior Berri, and depicts a dove holding a leaf in its beak in its embossed centre, and was the world’s first tricolour stamp.
The Swiss cantonal stamps were issued in small numbers and were in circulation for a short period, so the available samples are very valuable.
Column 3
Mauritius reprint (1912)
British Royal Governor Sir William Gomm, the ruler of the tiny Indian Ocean island decided to hold a ball in 1847, and, at the request of Lady Elisabeth Gomm, the governor’s wife, invitations were sent out to the island’s high society, bearing stamps as dictated by the new fashion of the day.
However, those stamps had to be produced. So they hired Joseph Barnard, a Port Louis watchmaker and engraver to make the clichés for stamp printing. Legend from the 1920s has it that the unfortunate watchmaker, who had never made a stamp in his life, passed by the post office on his way home. He could not get the Post Office inscription on the plate out of his mind and when he engraved the stamp image on the plate, he scratched it into the metal instead of the regular POST PAID (meaning “postage paid”). These rarities are therefore also known as Post Office stamps. He had no time to correct the mistake before the invitations were sent out: the 500 orange-red 1 penny and 500 blue 2 penny stamps were put on the envelopes and the rest were used up at the post office. Only 15 of the orange-red and 12 of the blue specimens have survived. These were the first stamps issued in a British Crown colony.
300 reprints were made of each, using the original printing plate for museum purposes in 1912. The specimens owned by the Budapest Stamp Museum bear serial number 33.
King George V of England was also fascinated by the blue Mauritius stamp, and bought it at an auction for GBP 1,450, considered to be a huge amount in 1904. Allegedly, one of his secretaries commented on the auction as follows: “A goddamn idiot bought a stamp for a ton of money.” His majesty replied: “It was me.”
Hawaiian missionary stamp (Hawaii, 1851–1852)
Hawaii was an independent kingdom in the mid-19th century. In the early part of the century, letters from foreigners—mainly missionaries—arrived on the islands were delivered to American ports by ship captains on an occasional basis. Partly due to the California gold rush, postal traffic increased sharply together with the number of settlers in 1849; therefore, a post office was opened in Honolulu on December 21, 1850. Its first postmaster, Henry Whitney served from 1850–1856 and issued Hawaii’s first, initial stamps on 1 October 1851. In three denominations: 2, 5 and 13 cents. The 2 cent was used to pre-pay postage of newspapers, the 5 cent to pre-pay postage of letters. The final denomination issued in 1852 already bore the inscription U.S. Postage, in accordance with the territorial settlement with the United States of America, and was affixed to letters delivered to the East Coast of the United States. As far as their price is concerned, 5 cents went to the Honolulu post office that collected the mail, 6 cents was due for postage pre-payment within the United States, and 2 cents went to the captain of the ship carrying the postal item. These stamps were used mainly by missionaries living there, hence their collector’s name.
The rarest of the fragile stamps, printed on thin paper, is the 2 cent stamp, French stamp collector Hector Giroux murdered his compatriot Gaston Leroux, also a stamp collector for this stamp in 1892. The detective, who was a stamp collector himself, recognised the motive and discovered that the stamp was missing. The detective persuaded the suspicious Giroux to present his stamp collection, and the vain collector couldn’t resist showing off his rarity, which was the evidence of his deed.
The so-called Dawson letter is the only known postal item that survived bearing Hawaiian missionary stamps. The letter was sent from Honolulu to New York via San Francisco in October 1852, and mysteriously ended up in a factory furnace around 1870. After the factory was shut down, they wanted to dispose of the letters by burning them. However, the furnace was packed so tightly that the fire went out. Letters remaining in the furnace were found by a cleaner after the land was sold 35 years later.
Hawaiian missionary stamps without postal marks are mainly unknown, and the Stamp Museum also has a highly valuable 13 cent overstamped specimen in its collection.
Stamp of the vain postmaster (New Brunswick, 1860)
New Brunswick is located in the territory of Canada today, and was an independent colony of the British Crown from 1784, so they used stamps bearing the portrait of the British Queen Victoria from 1860. Local postmaster Charles Connell ordered a stamps series of six stamps in 1860 due to the intense trade with the neighbouring United States, switching to the decimal currency system used there, in a penny denomination instead of the cent; however, he had his own portrait printed on the 5 cent denomination. A huge scandal erupted, and the postmaster, desperate for immortality, offered to purchase and voluntarily destroy the postage stamp denominations depicting him in public to calm tempers. He even resigned his position as a postmaster. (However, he remained a member of the colonial parliament until his death, where he worked to establish a united Canadian confederation.) The reprinted 5 cent then featured a portrait of Queen Victoria, who was already depicted on the other two denominations in the series. However, around fifty copies of this special stamp have survived for future generations.
Column 4
4 cent stamp of British Guiana (1856)
The only stamp in the world issued in a single specimen was produced in 1856. It was an emergency stamp: the consignment of stamps had not arrived from the UK; therefore, the local postmaster, E. T. E. Dalton instructed the Royal Newspaper Printing House to produce it using a simple technical finish. The series consisted of three pieces, the magenta 1 cent was used for pre-paid postage of local magazines, the purple and blue 4 cent pieces were used for pre-paid postage of letters.
The central image of the stamps was a three-masted sailboat and the Latin motto of the colony: Damus petimus que vicissim (We give and we expect something in return). The stamps were easy to counterfeit because of their simple printing, so they were cancelled by the signature of the post office employee on duty at the time of sale, most often by a monogram, of which there are four known types.
Only a single octagonal 1 cent stamp survived. Legend has it that it was found by a 12-year-old Scottish schoolboy, Vernon Vaughn among his uncle’s letters in 1873. Since the stamp was unknown to the catalogues, he sold it to a friend for 6 shillings. The stamp changed hands several times over the following decades, without anyone realising what a special piece they had in their hands, until it was finally bought by the famous stamp collector, Count Philip von Ferrari. He was an expert and quickly realised its value and the price of the stamp soared. After Ferrari’s death, it ended up in a museum in Berlin, and after World War I it became the property of France as war reparations. The 1 cent rarity has changed owners six times since 1922. It first passed into the possession of Arthur Hind, who was an obsessive collector, so everyone believed the rumour that he had destroyed the second copy he had also owned, so that there would only be one left in the world. After Hind’s death in 1933, the stamp changed hands many times, and virtually nothing was known about it from 1980 until 2014. However, it changed owners twice in the past decade. Reportedly bought for $9.5 million by designer and businessman Stuart Weitzman in 2014, then auctioned again in 2021.
The 4 cent denomination in the Stamp Museum’s collection is affixed to a letter, i.e. on a complete postal item, which is also unique. This stamp was signed at the time of use by the same Ed Wight who signed the 1 cent rarity.
Column 5
Italian States stamps
Trinacria stamp of Naples (1858)
The Dual Kingdom of Naples and Sicily was under the rule of the Spanish Bourbons until Garibaldi and the Redshirts, the famous Mille Corps landed in Marsala in May 1860. Garibaldi conquered Palermo through an uprising of people and was proclaimed dictator of the “Two Sicilies”, exercising power in the name of King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia and Piedmont. He conquered Naples on 7 September and finally defeated the Bourbons at the Volturno River. After his victory, he called a referendum which empowered him to hand over southern Italy to Victor Emmanuel. Trinacria stamps were valid from 6 November 1860 and were issued during the last days of Garibaldi’s dictatorship. Adequate value was needed to provide pre-payment solutions for postage of newspapers and forms, which is why they were printed. As speed and cheap production were a priority, the “G” was removed from the printing plate of the ½ grano denomination of the postage stamps series used from 1 January 1858 and replaced by “T”, namely, tornese. One grano was worth 2 tornesi (plural of tornese). The stamp, printed in blue instead of the original pink is characterised by the fact that the “G” has not been removed perfectly, its lines are visible next to the new denomination. (Another opinion is that this is the result of a double engraving on the stamp.)
Savoyan cross (1860)
The images of the original stamps used for the engraving depict, in a triple division, the heraldic beast of Naples, the rearing horse, the symbol of Sicily, the three-legged Medusa head (the actual trinacria) and the Bourbon lily. On the stamps of the provisional government valid from 6 December 1860, the aim was to remove the latter symbol; therefore, the central part of the Trinacria stamps was cut out of the printing device and replaced by a white cross. Features of the Savoyan cross stamps are identical to those of the previous ones. They also feature the double engraving of the “T”. They were used until the beginning of 1863, most of them were destroyed.
Tuscany 3 lira mint (1860)
Tuscany (together with Modena, Parma and Romagna) was united by referendum with the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1859, which it joined definitively in March 1860. A temporary state was formed in November 1859, which issued a series of temporary stamps from 1 January 1860, based on Sardinian currency. The stamps were only used until March 1860, after which the stamps of the Kingdom of Sardinia were used in the former Grand Duchy. The rarest of the temporary stamp series is the highest denomination 3 lira one, which is the most valuable of all Italian stamps.
Column 6
Moldavian Bull’s Heads (Moldavian Principality, 1858)
The Peace of Paris concluded in 1856 after the Crimean War (1853–1856) granted Moldova access to the sea, and two Romanian principalities were placed under the collective protection of the seven European powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria, France, England, Turkey and Piedmont, and the Kingdom of Italy as its successor), thus abolishing the Russian protectorate.
The Moldavian Principality issued its first stamp series in July 1858. Stamp sheets were individually hand-pressed, as indicated by the scattered arrangement of stamps. The stamp features a simple graphic depicting Moldova’s heraldic beast, the buffalo, with the five-pointed star above it—but the designer must have seen more oxen than buffalo in his lifetime, which is why the stamp is still called “ox-headed” because of the controversially successful depiction. Stamp denominations were indicated on the post horn: 27, 54, 81, 108 para. The odd denominations were due to the conversion from French francs. The postal service, which had become a state monopoly in 1857, was based on the French postal service because of the strong French political support following the Crimean War.
Tsarist coat of arms stamps and Russian newspaper stamp (1858, 1917)
Russia introduced stamps in 1858. Stamps bore the imperial coat of arms until 1917, although a series of portraits depicting successive monarchs was issued in 1913 to mark the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.
Revolutionaries came up with an unusual solution to use stamps for other purposes in 1917: they overprinted the arches of the Romanov series with the text of the resignation of Tsar Nicholas II, which appeared on the front page of the 4thissue of Izvestia in order to spread the news of the historic event as widely as possible.