Nicholas Frederick Seebeck

The only known photo of Nicholas F. Seebeck

Nicholas Frederick Seebeck (born February 19, 1857 ; † June 23, 1899 ) was a businessman and philatelist of German origin who worked in the USA . He became internationally known through contracts with the postal administrations of several countries in Latin America , with which Seebeck received the exploitation rights to the remaining stocks of the previous year for the annual delivery of new stamp issues .

Life

Little is known about the exact origin and early years of Seebeck's life. According to his biographer Danilo A. Mueses, he immigrated to the USA in 1873, where he opened a stationery shop in New York in the same year . There he initially only sold postage stamps on the side; The postage stamp trade quickly became Seebeck's main source of income due to the upswing in philately in the 1870s. As a result, he acquired extensive philatelic knowledge, which he recorded in his Descriptive Price Catalog of all known Postage Stamps of the United States and Foreign Countries, first published in 1876 . This catalog saw three further editions in the following six years. In early 1884 Seebeck sold his business and invested the US $ 10,000 proceeds in the Hamilton Bank Note Company , a well-known company specializing in the printing of banknotes, train tickets and postage stamps. On May 1, 1884, Seebeck became secretary and treasurer of this company. He sold his shares the following year for US $ 28,500 and subsequently worked as an employed manager. During this time he concluded supply contracts for postage stamps with four states in Central and South America. Seebeck succumbed to tuberculosis on June 23, 1899 .

Card with sample stamps from the Hamilton Bank Note Company

Seebeck editions

Stamp of a Seebeck edition for Ecuador

Seebeck received the first order to print postage stamps in 1879 from the postal administration of the Dominican Republic . It is no longer documented which company carried out these prints, it is assumed in Seebeck's biography that he turned to the Manhattan Bank Note Company , which was a predecessor of the Hamilton Bank Note Company . By 1883 Seebeck received orders for four different stamp issues from the Dominican Republic. The Manhattan Bank Note Company also produced the stamps for the Colombian Department de Bolívar from 1879 to 1885 , here too Mueses assumes that the contracts were signed by Seebeck.

The stamps of the states Ecuador , El Salvador , Honduras and Nicaragua , referred to as "Seebeck issues" in philatelic literature , were issued between 1890 and 1899. Seebeck signed the contracts during a trip through Central America in the spring of 1889. Seebeck offered the postal administrations of the financially weak countries a free annual delivery of new stamp series. In return, Seebeck received the unused remaining items that had been declared invalid by the respective postal administrations for sale to philatelists. The printing plates also remained with Seebeck, who was able to produce reprints for the philatelic market after the remaining stocks were sold. In addition to the delivery of postage stamps, the contracts also included the delivery of postal stationery ( wrappers , postcards, envelopes). Other types of brands were also produced through imprints, for example service stamps and telegraph stamps . The postal administration of Ecuador had concluded a similar contract with an agent of the Waterlow and Sons printing company in London , the obligations under this contract were taken over by the Hamilton Bank Note Company in 1890.

The brand quantities to be delivered varied between the different countries. For El Salvador at least 1.5 million pieces of each postage stamp, 25,000 pieces of envelopes and 10,000 pieces of wrapper and postcards were delivered. The delivery quantities for Honduras were about 30% higher.

All contracts had a term of 10 years, but could be terminated annually by both sides. After philatelists had strongly criticized the large number of newly issued stamps, Ecuador canceled its contract in 1895, the stamps for 1896 had already been printed, they were paid for and the remaining stocks were not returned. Honduras also terminated its contract as early as 1893, but due to delivery problems at a Honduran printing company, the contract was reinstated. The last Seebeck issues came to the post office there in 1895. Only Nicaragua and El Salvador issued stamps supplied by Seebeck annually until 1899. In these ten years, 166 postage stamps, 152 official stamps, 100 envelopes, 32 wrappers and 39 postcards as well as some stamps for special postal services were issued in El Salvador alone.

Seebeck did not take over the marketing of the remaining stock itself, but the dealer Gustav B. Calman, who had bought Seebeck's business in 1884. Even after Seebeck's death, he made reprints of most editions, some of which were stamped with false stamps.

Even during the term of the contracts, dealers and philatelic associations criticized the postal administrations of the countries that had concluded corresponding contracts with Seebeck for the “brand flood”. It should be noted here that in the 19th century collecting all brands issued worldwide was still widespread and therefore many collectors had to purchase all issues in order to complete their collections.

To this day, the unused brands are regarded as cheap mass-produced goods, which also have the problem that in many cases it is not possible to differentiate between originals and reprints. Because of the short validity of one year, really used stamps of the "Seebeck issues" are rarities.

literature

• Ullrich Häger: Large encyclopedia of philately . P. 427, Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh, Berlin, Munich, Vienna 1973. ISBN 3-570-03229-9
• Danilo A. Mueses: ¿Héroe o Villano? 170 pp., Santo Domingo, 1987.
• Deutsche Briefmarken-Revue issue No. 10/2006, pp. 40–48

Web links

• Biography in the journal Berliner Bär , accessed on March 8, 2012
• Images of the Seebeck editions , accessed on March 8, 2012
• Seebeck made many cheap stamps for collectors from Linns.com, accessed March 8, 2012

Remarks

1. ↑ According to some sources, the spelling of the first name is Nicolas