Requirement letter

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In philately, a letter of need is a letter that has been posted and transported by the post solely for the purpose of a private exchange of ideas, business correspondence or other real needs. It is not created out of philatelic interests like a first day cover , but comes from everyday life. It is therefore usually franked in accordance with the fee.

history

There were times when it was not easy to identify a need letter. Shortly after the Second World War , there was great shortage everywhere. This also applies to the regular stamp issues. For this reason, so-called emergency expenditures were initiated. These could be recognized by the fact that invalid brands were given a new value imprint and were issued regionally limited to one municipality. Not infrequently, fee or tax stamps were used for this, which were printed with new value markings and the name of the municipality or district. The requirements of these emergency measures were very small. Only a few letters that were actually sent have survived and are accordingly highly traded today. This was already recognized by collectors and dealers back then and they "helped" to get such letters into circulation.

It is not uncommon for letters to appear that pretend to have a need-based character, but were created out of a purely philatelic interest. At that time "maker" of these letters was very resourceful. Senders from (bogus) companies were not uncommon. They often appear as serial letters in which the same addresses appear again and again. Special franking such as registered mail or express mail was very often used for this. Letters to the authorities are relatively safe, such as B. Police, public prosecutor, mayor etc. But here too there should be no blind trust. Real requirement letters with rare stamps from these periods should only be purchased in the currently checked condition of a professional association auditor.

Requirement letters can count on this condition

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Ose: German local editions 1945, Soviet and western zones of occupation. Klenger-Verlag 2004.