Collector's pass

A collector's ID is colloquially a post office document, usually subject to a fee (ID for the purchase of postage stamps) that entitles stamp collectors and other postal customers to continuously receive a certain number of special postage stamps ( special stamps , miniature sheets and miniature sheets ), but also official stamps , postal stationery and first day letter envelopes from from a post office within a specified collection period.

Collector's ID for the Deutsche Reichspost (1943–1945)

From the time of the Third Reich , collector's cards used by the Reichspost during the last two years of the war are known. It was a question of post office forms mostly with printer's notices from 1943 (e.g. 6.43 or 56.43 ). They were provided with an address field for the recipient of the postage stamps and, in principle, cancellation fields on the back, on which the purchase was noted by adding a day stamp . However, there are also ID cards in larger format with only one-sided printing. With the fee-based ID (1 RM ) 20 issues of special stamps, postcards and official stamps could be obtained. The expenses were not tied to specific cancellation fields. The ID was renewed when all 20 fields were stamped. Postal customers had to collect the issues within 14 days of the first day of issue. Possibly due to a lack of material due to the war, temporary forms for collector's cards were also used. So far, based on the date of the stamp, the Volkssturm stamp from February 1945 is known as the last issue picked up. The next issue of special stamps on April 20, 1945 coincided with the Battle of Berlin and thus almost with the capitulation of the German Reich. The stamps produced in the Staatsdruckerei Vienna are unlikely to have reached the post office (sale and postal use).

• Forms for 1944 and 1945 collector cards used
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  Form with printer's note 6.43 (front), made out for 2  sets of stamps

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  Temporary form (front), made out for 10 sets of stamps

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  Backup form (back), used to output Volkssturm from February 1945

Collector's ID of the Deutsche Post of the GDR (January 1, 1953–1990)

Preliminary remarks

Post office announcement that collector's cards will be issued from January 1, 1953

Probably also in view of the experiences with collector's cards from the time of the Third Reich, the GDR Post saw the introduction of chargeable “IDs for the permanent purchase of special stamps” in the German Democratic Republic as an effective means of avoiding the speculative purchases that were rampant at the beginning of the 1950s of special stamps by dealers and private customers. As a result of this practice of selling special postage stamps, which lasted for almost four decades until 1990, collector's cards became widely known even in non-philatelic circles of the German population. In 1955, the ID-related purchase was also combined with a reduction in the circulation of individual special postage stamps (so-called low-circulation value), so that, in principle, it was not possible to acquire all of the GDR Post's special postage stamps in full without the collector's ID. The use of collector's cards in the GDR is to be seen against the background of the division of Germany as a result of the Second World War and was for reasons of trade policy (for more details see under value in low circulation (blocking value) ). With effect from January 1, 1953, an identification procedure was introduced in the GDR for the permanent purchase of special postage stamps for the reasons mentioned above.

ID type I

In accordance with the regulation of the Ministry of Post for the issue of collector's cards from January 1, 1953, the post offices were required to take care of the production of the corresponding IDs themselves - certainly according to a centrally specified template - until post office forms were available (compare the illustration of the hectographed temporary issue). By April 15, 1953, the Oberpostdirektion (OPD) was supposed to report on the experiences of the post offices subordinate to them with the use of collector cards to the GDR postal ministry .

The identity card, the accompanying informational texts of which varied slightly over the years, was issued in the first period of use from 1953 to 1968 for a fee of DM 1 and was valid for 15 special issues that had to be picked up within 14 days. As in the period from 1943 to 1945, the purchase of the special stamps was noted by attaching a day stamp to the back of the collector's card. Here, too, the expenses were not tied to certain cancellation fields. The ID card was renewed when all existing fields were stamped.

The number of issues ordered was handwritten on the form. Although, according to the post office announcement shown, the purchase should be limited to a maximum of five issues, there is a collector's card from 1955 with which 10 complete sets could be collected. However, the Post reserved the right to make reductions if smaller quantities of stamps were available at the post offices. At the end of the 1950s, the upper limit of the reference was probably 5 sentences from each issue.

From January 1, 1954, permanent subscription was extended to include first-day covers and postal stationery ( postcards ). At no time in the GDR could official stamps be obtained from normal post offices. Since sufficient numbers of first-day covers for the special editions were available from September 23, 1958 and demand could therefore be fully satisfied, from October 1, these envelopes were no longer counted as receiving special postage stamps in the identification procedure.

All previous orders for the sale and permanent purchase of postage stamps from the GDR were reorganized with effect from September 1, 1959: The sale of special postage stamps was still permitted to a buyer in quantities of up to 5 per issue. The stamps could be obtained from the post offices using the identification procedure or from the dispatch point in Berlin. The exact regulation comprised 11 pages of information. From May 1, 1960, the collector's cards for obtaining postage stamps were issued free of charge to employees of Deutsche Post.

From 1966 onwards, Deutsche Post recommends that permanent recipients of the identification procedure in the event of a longer absence from their place of residence either have the order transferred to a new post office or become a customer at the shipping point.

• Type I collector's pass
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  June 1953: Front with notes, fee 1  DM (hectography)

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  Reverse with cancellation columns

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  1957: Front with references, fee 1 DM (print)

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  Reverse with cancellation fields

ID type II

A new type of ID card type II on thicker paper and in the pre-printed colors black, red and green was introduced in 1969. The delivery amount was now limited to 3 sentences, and different forms (1 to 3 sentences) were used from the outset for the different reference levels. The ID cards valid for 30 issues cost 2 marks; the fee per issue remained unchanged. When the stamps were collected, a numbered coupon, which was linked to a specific special edition, was detached from the ID and retained by the post office. The collection period shown on the form fluctuated between 15 and 16 days; in 1990 it was 15 days. The extension of the collection period is likely to be related to the introduction of the 5-day working week in 1967, since most post offices were now also closed on Saturdays, which the identification text also indicated.

• Type II collector's pass (1985)
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  Front, fee 2 M

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  Back with notes

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  Section part

New regulations for the identification procedure on the occasion of the monetary, economic and social union in 1990

On July 1, 1990 , the sales regulations for postage stamps and philatelic souvenirs were changed in such a way that from this point in time their sales were no longer limited. There were also no longer any values ​​in small print runs ; rather, the print run was determined solely by postal requirements, taking into account the need of collectors for new stamps. The ban on the sale of entire sheets of special postage stamps was lifted, but the purchase of special postage stamps in the identification process at post offices and post offices remained in the interests of long-term recipients until the expiry of the collector's card according to the previous stipulations. New registrations were no longer accepted for the counter reference - the collector's pass had lost its meaning.

Exhibition tickets as a collector's pass

Before 1945 in particular, the souvenir sheet editions, which at that time were still quite cautious and in comparatively small editions, were issued by the postal authorities, often only in connection with a visit to a stamp exhibition upon presentation of an admission ticket. This also functioned as a collector's pass in a broader sense. In German-speaking countries, this practice began at the Reichspost in 1930 with the block on IPOSTA 1930 in Berlin. This issue followed Austria in 1934 with the WIPA pad (International Postage Stamp Exhibition) and Switzerland with the pad for the “NABA” (National Postage Stamp Exhibition) 1934 in Zurich. The three block editions were each the first of the postal administrations concerned.

In August 1949, for the special sheet for the Soviet occupation zone for the 200th birthday of JW von Goethe , the purchase of the sheet was again linked to an entry ticket to the Goethe exhibition in Weimar . However, the issue was now also available at the collector's counter in East Berlin W 8.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The purchase of official stamps and postcards by means of a collector's card is documented by a preprinted form from the Reichspost from 1943 with the printer's note “(6.43)”. In a similar way, the GDR's Deutsche Post regulated the purchase of first-day covers and postal stationery (postcards) in addition to special stamp sets for a certain period of time, at least until the end of the 1960s (see the type I ID card shown).
2. ↑ The cancellations that have appeared so far show dates from 1944 and 1945.
3. ↑ collectors express. Specialized newspaper for philately and other collecting areas . Berlin 1952, issue 20, p. 2
4. ↑ To what extent hectographed and printed forms were used in 1953 still has to be researched.
5. ↑ There are forms used in 1969, 1971 and 1981 with a 16-day collection period.
6. ↑ Compare to Wolfram Grallert, Waldemar Gruschke: Lexikon Philatelie . transpress VEB Verlag für Verkehrwesen, Berlin 1971, p. 43, keyword: “ID card for obtaining special postage stamps”. (The keyword, however, only refers to the purchase of special postage stamps and is therefore too narrow, as evidenced by the Reichspost collector's cards from 1943 to 1945, which also included official stamps in the postal subscription.)
7. ^ The first block edition of the Principality of Liechtenstein , which was also published for a national stamp exhibition in 1934, was sold at the exhibition post office in Vaduz and the local post office in Friesenberg.