Stamp booklet
A stamp booklet or stamp booklet (abbreviation MH), (officially earlier postage stamp booklet, postage stamp booklet or postage stamp booklet), is a special form of sale of stamps at post counters and formerly also postage stamp machines that put together several postage stamps (in the Federal Republic / West Berlin often 8–10 stamps, but the range is from 4–30) in common values in a booklet at a round retail price (previously often 1 or 2 DM, now mostly ten times the standard postage). The advantage is the simple stock purchase of frequently used brands as well as the protected and coherent storage. When selling stamp booklets via machines, they had an advantage over the sale of individual stamps from the roll, as the stamp booklets did not stick to one another even in high humidity, which was never completely ruled out with roll stamps despite the special rubber coating.
In the past, there were often several values that could be combined in various ways to form postage levels. Nowadays the stamp booklets of Deutsche Post AG (in postal jargon referred to as brand set (10 stamps) or Maxiset (20 stamps)) consist mainly of ten self-adhesive special stamps in a uniform value, but no longer have a "round" (= particularly vending machine) sales price .
historical development
Germany (from 1949 especially the Federal Republic with West Berlin)
1. Post office counter MH
The first German stamp booklet was issued on November 1, 1910 by the Reichspostverwaltung ( Deutsche Reichspost ). It contained three booklet sheets with 12 postage stamps at 10 pfennig and 16 postage stamps at 5 pfennig. The Bavarian Postal Administration followed in 1911 with its first stamp booklet. By the end of the empire, 48 more permanent and special stamp booklets had appeared.
Characteristic of these post office counter MH, which was in use until 1960 (because it was only sold over the counter) in the long format, is the structure of two cardboard lids on the front and back, the one with the booklet sheet or sheets in between and some advertising interleaves with a steel clip are stapled together on the left. The right side remains open. Book sheets are the stamp blocks cut out from specially manufactured stamp book sheets (but there are also book sheets that come from normal counter sheets), whereby sometimes different values are printed next to one another, a special case that allows a large variety of possible combinations of book sheets and stamp book sheets of separated brands results (special collecting area Zusammdrucke).
In May 1947 the first German post-war booklet appeared with the continuous series Numbers as an edition of the Allied occupation.
The first stamp booklet of the Deutsche Bundespost came out on October 30, 1951 with a circulation of 750,000 at a sales price of DM 2.50. The contents were two booklet sheets with a total of three 4-pfennig, three 6-pfennig, four 10-pfennig and nine 20-pfennig stamps from the Posthorn series . Further booklets from the Heuss series followed in 1955, 1956, 1958 and 1960.
2. Machine MH
From 1960, the structure of the booklet changed to enable sales at vending machines. These MH do not use a clip, instead the bottom of the booklet is glued to the lid with a very narrow edge. Also new is the cohesive cardboard lid, which is folded in the middle at a puncture and is glued together on the left open side with a Lumbeck-like adhesive binding including the inner booklet sheet . In order to remove stamps from the MH, which is closed on both sides, the opening was provided at the perforation, which, however, greatly reduces the collector's value of the torn MH, instead an opening on the left adhesive is considered flawless. The MH, which was initially only sold on a trial basis in Darmstadt, proved its worth, so that from 1961 the MH machine dominated with brands from the permanent series Major Germans , Brandenburg Gate and Accident Prevention . Until 1967, long-format MH was used (format approx. 12 × 5 cm), from 1968 onwards there was a change to small-format MH (format approx. 6 × 5 cm).
3. Automaten-Chromolux-MH
From 1974 onwards, the small format booklets made of Chromolux cardboard, a coated, colored cardboard box that is folded along the puncture and remains open on one side without glue, appeared. The booklet sheet is glued to the cardboard by moistening the gum. Also new is the production of booklet sheets using roll printing, which is why there is no stamp sheet. The modified procedure causes a number of novel phenomena that have attracted a great deal of attention from collectors. Particularly noticeable is the imperforate top and bottom edge of the booklet sheet, which results in stamps with a cut top or bottom edge, in contrast to roll or sheet stamps. Brands from the permanent series Accident Prevention , Castles and Palaces and Sights shaped this MH, which was typical for the 1970s to 1990s. After reunification, there were also stamp booklets in an elongated format for a while, mainly for use in the new federal states.
4. Special stamps MH
On the occasion of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, the Deutsche Bundespost issued a one-time stamp booklet with special stamps, the format and other technical data of which was intended for sale via vending machines. Since the end of the 1970s, Deutsche Sporthilfe took up the idea and produced booklets with special "For Sport" stamps, which they also sold themselves. Official stamp booklets with special stamps have only been around since the 1990s. These booklets, which are no longer sold via vending machines, usually contain ten stamps from a special edition. Initially, "normal" stamps made of sheets were used for this purpose, but now there are also special miniature sheets and special self-adhesive editions (see also point Self-adhesive MH ).
5. Self-adhesive MH
Since 2000, booklets with self-adhesive, wave-shaped stamped stamps have been offered, which are simply peeled off and stuck onto the mailpiece. The first such booklet appeared in 1991 (still with straight punching), but it wasn't until 2000 that the era of the self-adhesive MH began. Until the mid-1990s, permanent series booklets were decisive (there was only a special stamp booklet in 1972), but now the time for special stamp booklets began. In the GDR, however, special stamp booklets were distributed much earlier.
Another phenomenon since 2008 has been the foil sheets, which are not in the form of a booklet, but rather represent a single, unfolded sheet with self-adhesive stamps and have now largely replaced the actual MH. Strictly speaking, these are not MH, but are i. A. viewed as unfolded stamp booklets.
particularities
Until the 1970s it was common for the most common postage rates to be shown on the envelope covers of the MH. Since after the postage increases there were still considerable stocks of MH in some cases or new MH were not yet available, the previous MH were still sold, but a stamp such as "Fee information invalid" was often attached. The variety of stamps used is great and requires an independent specialty within the MH.
Trial adjustment booklets (VJ-MH) were used for the adjustment and maintenance of booklet machines, with the aim of ensuring that MH was able to work with the machine (because problems often arose in this area). The VJ-MH do not contain any postage stamps i. e. S., but turquoise or colorless, unprinted empty fields in brand form. The lids are partially identical to the normal MH, z. Sometimes it is an unprinted cover. It was not sold through the post office, but a large number came into the possession of collectors.
There are also machine sample MHs that were produced by print shops on a test basis as part of the introduction of new MHs and also contain unprinted blank fields.
From the mid-1970s, every fiftieth MH was provided with a red counting bar on the outer cover to make it easier to count the remaining stock in the machine.
Unofficial MH
From 1979 onwards, so-called private stamp booklets were published by Deutsche Sporthilfe , which contained surcharge stamps from the Deutsche Bundespost and Deutsche Bundespost Berlin. To this day, such MHs are published by a large number of charities and aid organizations (e.g. German Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband , Arbeiterwohlfahrt , Diakonie , Caritas ). Depending on the content of the booklet, one speaks of sports brand booklets, youth brand booklets and welfare and Christmas brand booklets.
In addition, there are private MH from associations, clubs and companies, often on philatelic occasions and mostly not provided with surcharge stamps.
In all cases, however, even if the MH were partially made up by Bundesdruckerei, it is a matter of private expenditure without further authorization by the respective post office.
MH specialties
Due to the manufacturing process, there are a large number of special features that attract special attention from special collectors. T. increase considerably. These include: edge bar variants (= line bar variants on the edge of the booklet sheet), overprints (e.g. counting numbers), cover variants (color, cardboard thickness, perforation width in the cover fold), cover print variants (print image, double print, cliché variants), counting bars, plate errors, brand printing errors, compensating teeth (pointed / wide compensating tooth), edge serration types (perforated / non-perforated edge of the booklet sheet), cutting marking variants, differences in gumming.
Illustrations
- Stamp booklets
The first MH of the Bundespost from 1951 (MH 1)
Contents of MH 1: Booklet sheet 1
Contents of MH 1: Booklet sheet 2
Post office counter-MH of the Post Berlin from 1952 with six booklet sheets of the permanent series Berliner Bauten and five advertising interleaves (MH 2)
Bund post office counter-MH from 1958 (MH 4) with permanent series Heuss
Inside view of MH 4
Back of MH 4 X with advertisement Pelikan
Back MH 4 Y with advertisement winner
Bund Automaten-MH (MH 8) from 1963 with outside
German Reich post office counter MH 14
The first post-war MH from 1947 (MH 50) with a rare cover trim: part of the lettering on the lower edge is on the upper edge
Airmail MH from 1948
Bund MH 2 from 1955 with three booklet sheets from the Heuss series
Advertising variants of Berlin MH 3 from 1962–64
Lid variants of collar MH 8: further opening on the left, narrow opening on the right.
Berlin Automaten-MH in small format from 1970 (MH 6)
Bund Automaten-Kleinformat-MH 14 from 1968
The first Chromulux-MH of the Federal Post Office from 1974 (MH 20)
Berlin MH 10 from 1977 with counting bar and rare narrow cover puncture
Automaten-Chromolux-MH from 1982 with counting bar (MH 24)
Exterior view of the collar MH 27
The last MH Berlin from 1989 (MH 15)
Bund MH 32 from 1995 with black counting bar
Bund MH 14 with hand stamp imprint "Fee information invalid". In the case of postage changes, MH with outdated fee levels were often marked with a corresponding note
Bund MH 15 with hand stamp "Fee information invalid" and additional day stamp.
Machine sample MH 16 with red print on the lid
Inside of machine sample MH 16 with blank spaces
Berlin experimental adjustment MH 12 with empty fields
literature
- Early stamp booklet international. In: Briefmarkenspiegel edition 9/2012, p. 36 f
