Local Stamps
Strausberg - 1946
View of Strausberg
By: Arne Hückelheim - From: Wikimedia
Local stamps for Strausberg, of an
"official" nature, were issued at the beginning of 1946. These charity
stamps were valid for postal use.
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.
Strausberg has existed since the 13th Century. It is located in east Germany, about 30 km. east of Berlin, very near to the Polish border.
During 1945,
remaining stocks of the definitive and commemorative stamps of the
Third Reich were overprinted with "Stadt / Strausberg" and various other
obliterations. Michel lists these in their Local Issues section but
notes that they were privately produced, unauthorized postage stamp
issues. Though they were unofficial issues, most of them exist postally
used. Many of them are very scarce, especially in used condition.
The local stamps shown in the two
images above were issued on January 30, 1946 to raise funds for the
post-war reconstruction of Strausberg. The four denominations were
issued se-tenant in sheets of 20, and the postal surtaxes went towards
the reconstruction effort. The set was issued both perforated 11 1/2
and imperforate, as shown above.
For the specialist, a number of plate varieties, as well as proofs, exist for this issue.
The
two souvenir sheets shown below were also issued for this event. They
were printed in violet blue and in black, and they exist in two types,
with them being differences in the framework around the stamps -- the
prices are the same for each type. These souvenir sheets were only
issued imperforate.
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Germany - Allied Occupation
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Local Stamps - Strausberg - 1946
