Local stamps were produced during 1946 for
the Soviet occupation zone town of Cottbus in Brandenburg. It is
situated SE of Berlin on the Spree River.
A reminder: One must realize that in the months and years following the
collapse of the Third Reich, up to about 1948, there was really no
civilian or commercial infrastructure, no local government, and the only
national governments were those of the Allied occupation military
forces. All of the local issues of Germany from this period, especially
the ones with obliterating overprints on the stamps of the former Third
Reich, have been heavily counterfeited. Authentic mint and used stamps
from this period are actually very scarce. One must assume that
unauthenticated mint condition examples of some of the local issues are
either forgeries or reproductions. Likewise, one must assume that
unauthenticated used condition examples from this period are either of
"philatelic" in origin or have been favor-canceled. These all have
minimal philatelic value. If one is buying unauthenticated examples of
the post-war local issues, please keep this in mind and DON'T spend too
much money on them.
Cottbus dates from the 10th Century, when
the Sorbs built a castle on a sandy island in the Spree River. During
Medieval times, the town was known for its wool industry, and drapery
products from Cottbus were exported all over Europe. Today it is the
site of the annual Eastern European Film Festival.
The set of local stamps shown in the
images above were issued in January 1946. The surcharged stamps feature
city and district scenes, and they are inscribed Cottbus / Aufbau Marke
or "Cottbus / Reconstruction Stamp" in English. These stamps were all
perforated 11, though many of them exist imperforate. The funds from
the sale of the stamps went for reconstruction projects in the Cottbus
area.
The depictions on the stamps are as follows:
The
Mark denominations also exist without the "faint under-printing".
These are a little scarcer than the originally issued stamps.
For Stamp
Day in 1946, seven denominations of the previous set were overprinted,
in different styles, with a date and a new surcharge value. Two of them
are shown in the image above.
The 25 Pf. + 12 Pf. denomination was also re-issued in two new colors, and they were both imperforate. One of the stamps was printed in red orange and the other one in orange yellow.
The red orange 25 Pf. + 12 Pf. stamp was also overprinted with Tag der Briefmarke / 10. 1. 1946 and a new surcharge value of + 10 RM.
There
are many plate and paper varieties of most of the Cottbus local stamp
issues. Refer to the Michel Deutschland Spezial Katalog volume 2 for
details.
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Local Stamps - Cottbus - 1946