The first Christmas stamps
Canada’s 2 cent stamp https://stampuoso.com/listing/canada, celebrating the introduction of imperial penny postage but inscribed ‘XMAS 1898’ is usually regarded as the world’s first Christmas stamp. But the stamp wasn’t intended primarily for use on greetings cards and almost 40 years would elapse before the first stamps intended for that purpose were released.
Austria released a set of stamps early in December each year bearing a charity premium in aid of a wide range of good causes. By sticking Winter Relief stamps on their Christmas postage stamps https://stampuoso.com/topic/christmas more affluent Austrians got a feeling of doing some good. In 1937 in a set of four charity stamps which illustrated child welfare, feeding needy children, protecting the aged and nursing the sick but there was a growing opinion that something more jolly would be appropriate to greetings cards. Why should those who couldn’t afford the few groschen over and above the postal rate have to fork out for the privilege of decorating their Christmas cards with special stamps?
On December 12 that year the Austrian postal administration introduced a pair of special stamps in a common design but denominated 12 groschen in blue-green for postcards and 24 groschen in carmine for cards in sealed envelopes. Professor Willi Dachauer designed this pair, which was recess printed by the Staatsdruckerei. The motif showed an elegant little glass vase containing a bunch of roses, flanked by two vertical panels engraved with the signs of the zodiac. The country name was inscribed near the foot, with the numerals of value below.
Unfortunately there was no inscription to indicate the special use of these stamps. From the date of issue it seems obvious the stamps were intended for greetings cards of all kinds, both Christmas and the New Year. They were the last stamps issued by the pre-war Republic of Austria. On March 13, 1938, Austria was absorbed into the Third Reich as the province of Ostmark and Austrian stamps were promptly replaced by German ones. Then stamp collectors – who have vivid imaginations – fancied they saw the portrait of Adolf Hitler, complete with toothbrush moustache, in the large central rose. Any resemblance was quite by chance but it was a controversial beginning to Christmas stamps.
Austria released a set of stamps early in December each year bearing a charity premium in aid of a wide range of good causes. By sticking Winter Relief stamps on their Christmas postage stamps https://stampuoso.com/topic/christmas more affluent Austrians got a feeling of doing some good. In 1937 in a set of four charity stamps which illustrated child welfare, feeding needy children, protecting the aged and nursing the sick but there was a growing opinion that something more jolly would be appropriate to greetings cards. Why should those who couldn’t afford the few groschen over and above the postal rate have to fork out for the privilege of decorating their Christmas cards with special stamps?
On December 12 that year the Austrian postal administration introduced a pair of special stamps in a common design but denominated 12 groschen in blue-green for postcards and 24 groschen in carmine for cards in sealed envelopes. Professor Willi Dachauer designed this pair, which was recess printed by the Staatsdruckerei. The motif showed an elegant little glass vase containing a bunch of roses, flanked by two vertical panels engraved with the signs of the zodiac. The country name was inscribed near the foot, with the numerals of value below.
Unfortunately there was no inscription to indicate the special use of these stamps. From the date of issue it seems obvious the stamps were intended for greetings cards of all kinds, both Christmas and the New Year. They were the last stamps issued by the pre-war Republic of Austria. On March 13, 1938, Austria was absorbed into the Third Reich as the province of Ostmark and Austrian stamps were promptly replaced by German ones. Then stamp collectors – who have vivid imaginations – fancied they saw the portrait of Adolf Hitler, complete with toothbrush moustache, in the large central rose. Any resemblance was quite by chance but it was a controversial beginning to Christmas stamps.
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