Express stamp
Express stamps are a special class of postage stamps with which the payment of an additional fee for express delivery is proven and which at the same time serve to identify a shipment. The first stamp of this kind was issued in the USA on October 1, 1885 . At the beginning of the 20th century, many countries had introduced such brands, which often show deliverers with fast means of transport for the time. The use as an express stamp results from inscriptions such as Special Delivery (USA), Espresso (e.g. Italy , San Marino , Vatican City ), Correos Expreso ( Ecuador ) or Correspondencia Urgente ( Spain and colonies). In 1916, Austria introduced express stamps in German-speaking countries, which were also used with special overprints in the areas occupied during the First World War. Some countries created subspecies of the express stamp, such as special express stamps for international mail and military post express stamps.
Since the Universal Postal Congress in Madrid in 1920 , such items in international postal traffic must be marked with a red sticker with the French inscription "Exprès" (a translation into the respective national language can also be done, in German: express delivery ). With the introduction of these stickers, the express stamps, whose issue was discontinued by most postal administrations at the end of the 1930s, became obsolete. Spain and Spanish Sahara continued to use express stamps until the 1960s.
The Michel catalog, published in Germany, groups express stamps into free and special stamps, catalogs in Anglo-American countries such as the Scott catalog or Stanley Gibbons catalog assign their own numbering for these stamps.
literature
- Ullrich Häger: Large encyclopedia of philately . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1973, ISBN 3-570-03229-9 , pp. 123 .
- Heinrich Karasek: Express stamps from Austria 1916–1922 . 1993, p. 1-79 .
- J. Nováček: The reference book for the stamp collector . Dausien, Hanau / M. 1984, p. 78-79 .
