| ISSUES
OF THE MONARCHY
Nos.
1-6
TYPE:
A 1
ISSUED: May 1, 1871
PROCESS: Lithographed
PERF: 9½
PAPER: Unwatermarked
DESIGNER: John (Janos) Unrein
PURPOSE: Regular postage
DESIGN: King Francis Joseph I
HISTORY: Francis Joseph I, born 1830, died 1916; was Emperor
of Austria from 1848 to 1918; King of Hungary; brother
of Maximilian.
NOTES:
#1 to #6 are known to exist imperforate.
The 25 kr. stamp of 1871 (both lithographed and engraved)
was intended for the payment of money orders or for special
delivery letters. When used for the payment of money orders
the stamp shows the town cancellation with the word "PENZUTALVANY"
or "GELDANWEISUNG" both of which mean "money
order." Should the cancellation not show either of
the above words, the stamp was used for special delivery.
There are a few known covers showing the use of the stamp
for registration.
Mr. John Grafel, president of the Austro Hungarian Philatelic
society, explained the 10 types of this issue in the September,
1947 issue of the S.P.A. Journal as follows:
"There is no definite knowledge as to the method
used in printing the 1871 issue of the lithographed stamps.
The only information available is from older collectors,
who recalled seeing a full sheet of the 3 kr. value of
100 stamps in the famous Hungarian collection formed by
Lajos Richter. This sheet was sold to the Senf brothers
in Leipzig and is our only basis for assuming that the
stamps were printed in sheets of 100. This sheet never
appeared again and may have been broken up or destroyed.
"The method used in making the stone from which the
sheets of stamps were produced is in doubt, on account
of not having enough lithographed stamps, let alone pairs,
strips, or blocks, which are almost non existent. The
first attempt to determine the method of printing was
made around 1920 by Hugo Grieber, the great English philatelist,
who died in 1923. He was able to assemble enough 5 kr.
lithographed stamps to begin his work.
"Based on the process of lithography, during the
transfer of the subject from the master engraving to the
stone from which the 100 subject stamp sheets were produced,
some minute flaws naturally occurred. These included breaks
in lines, dots, spots, etc. A study of these flaws led
to the possibility of the existence of the types. With
the material on hand Hugo Grieber found that from the
master engraving ten impressions were made and transferred
to the stone and this was repeated nine times more to
give the 100 subjects for the stone from which the stamps
were produced.
"This gave the first impetus for further studies
and, soon after the establishment of the ten types and
the death of Hugo Grieber, the great Hungarian philatelist,
Miklos Redey, took up these for further study. He also
found ten types. However, he believed in the following
process:
From the master engraving five impressions were made on
transfer paper. This was repeated five times on to a stone
until a block of 25 was created. The block of 25 was then
transferred three more times, which gave the 100 subjects
to the stone.
"From both of these studies the existence of the
ten types of the 5 kr. lithographed stamps is an established
fact. The writer of this article also was able to work
out the ten types of the 10 kr. denomination. But it will
be extremely hard to work out the types of any other denomination,
because of the scarcity of these stamps. |
