Local Stamps
Finsterwalde - 1946
Local stamps were issued by the town of Finsterwalde during 1946.
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.
Located in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the town is about 25 miles Southwest of Cottbus, in a wine-growing region of the state of Brandenburg.
Finsterwalde was
first mentioned in 1288 in historical texts, and it was a possession of
Saxony after 1635. It has a Gothic church, built in 1581, and a castle,
which are shown in the picture at the left. Today, it is basically an
industrial town of foundries, mills, and factories. The town is famous
for the "Four Singers from Finsterwalde".
The twelve local semi-postal stamps shown above were
issued on February 16, 1946, to raise money to pay for local
reconstruction projects. They depict the Finsterwalde City Hall, with
the coat of arms below. They are unwatermarked and printed on grayish
brown paper with heavily grilled gum.
The souvenir sheet shown above comes in two varieties,
one with a small coat of arms, and the other with a larger coat of arms.
The souvenir sheets are considerably scarcer than the stamps of this
issue.
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Germany - Allied Occupation
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Local Stamps - Finsterwalde - 1946
