Vermilion Mercury
| Vermilion Mercury | |
|---|---|
|
|
| output | |
| country | |
| Face value | |
| First day | 1856 |
| Date of Expiry | |
| layout | |
| Motif | |
| colour | |
| draft | |
| Sting | |
| Print type | |
| perforation | imperforate |
| particularities | Newspaper brand |
| Edition | |
| Edition | 120,000 |
The vermilion Merkur is the rarest postage stamp in Europe in terms of the number of copies and by far the most valuable postage stamp in Austria .
The vermilion Mercury owes its name to its characteristic color and the motif, which shows Mercurius , the messenger of the gods of Roman mythology in a square , framed by the inscription "KK Post - newspaper stamp". This design came from the Austrian Josef Axmann . This philatelic rarity is not an ordinary postage stamp , but a newspaper stamp that was used to pay for the discounted mailing of newspapers . The newspaper stamp was cut , i.e. it was issued without perforation .
General
The stamps were issued between 1851 and 1921 with the motif of the head of Mercury in connection with the color information (blue, yellow, pink Mercury). The very rare editions are almost never in good condition and were published between 1851 and 1856. The Austrian Merkur brands had no value indication until 1880, the postage value was only recognizable by the color of the stamp, a so-called "color value designation". The Merkur stamps were only sold to newspaper mailers in whole sheets , whereby the postage value of the yellow and pink Merkur were later reduced in order to use up. The postage at that time was 0.6 kreuzer for a newspaper, 6 kreuzer for 10 newspapers, 30 kreuzer for 50 newspapers. The stamps were valid until they were used up, but no later than May 31, 1864 or December 31, 1858 for the vermilion Mercury. Numerous forgeries and reprints are known.
| 0.6 cruiser | 6 cruisers | 30 cruisers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| blue mercury | September 1850 until consumption | - | - |
| yellow Mercury | from March 1856 (Vienna) | November 1850/56 | - |
| pink mercury | from the end of 1852 (Vienna) | - | November 1850/1852 |
| vermilion Mercury | - | - | Mid-1856/1858 |
Emergence
The first newspaper stamp issue in Austria
On January 1, 1851 , the first newspaper stamp series of the Austrian Empire appeared, which was also the first newspaper stamp series in the world. At that time, newspapers in Austria could not be franked with normal postage stamps, as they received a special discount on postage . This series was actually planned for June 1, 1850, the day the first Austrian postage stamp, the so-called coat of arms issue , was introduced; however, the issue was delayed. The first newspaper stamps in Austria originally consisted of three values in 1851, all of which adorned the image of Mercury. The “Merkure”, as they are often called, are provided without any indication of their value. This enabled them to be used both in Austria and in the Austrian-dependent Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto , which owned the Italian silver currency. The only difference in the Mercury was in color.
The Blue Mercury was intended to be sent from a newspaper. This corresponded to 0.60 cruisers or 3 centesimi. The Yellow Mercury was used to send ten newspapers (6 Kreuzer or 30 Centesimi). The Rosa Merkur was used to send 50 newspapers (30 Kreuzer or 1.5 Lire).
Failures of Pink and Yellow Mercury
It soon became apparent, however, that the Rosa Merkur was hardly ever needed for mailing 50 newspapers, since 50 newspapers or more were rarely sent to one address. It was therefore decided to discontinue the issue of Rosa Merkur and to sell this newspaper stamp as the ordinary Blauer Merkur from October 1852 . This means that the value of a pink Mercury was now equal to that of a blue. The used values of the Pink Mercury are mostly such "consumption values".
Yellow Mercury also had several problems after its release. The brand color yellow turned out to be extremely unfavorable. The brand image was usually difficult to recognize. In addition, it was easy to recolor inferior Blue Mercury to Yellow Mercury by chemical means .
The introduction and rapid abolition of vermilion Mercury
In 1856 it was finally decided to change the color of yellow Mercury. This was the hour of birth of vermilion Mercury. The remaining stocks of the Yellow Mercury were used up as of March 1856, like the Pink Mercury, as Blue Mercury for the franking of a newspaper.
The vermilion Mercury, however, suffered the same fate as the Pink Mercury. Due to a lack of demand, this newspaper stamp was declared invalid on December 31, 1858. Due to the very low circulation this time, it was not used up. The circulation was only 120,000 pieces. In comparison, the circulation of Blue Mercury was 136,000,000 copies.
The worth of vermilion Mercury
The high catalog values of a vermilion Mercury of up to 150,000 euros are made up of various factors. The small circulation, the extremely low demand and the short period of use are of course included. In addition, at that time newspaper stamps were mainly on the packaging (wrapping) of newspapers. This was almost always thrown away.
On May 7, 2007, a vermilion Merkur with original gum was auctioned at the Swiss auction house Rapp for CHF 80,000 plus buyer's premium (lot no. 1238).
Two days later, at the same four-day auction, two vermilion Merkur were auctioned together for CHF 232,000.
On September 28, 2007 a vermilion Mercury without gum was sold at the Vienna auction house Öphila for EUR 60,000 (lot no. 380), this piece comes from the Ferrary collection and was sold at the 8th Ferrary auction in Paris in November 1923 sold for 18,000 French francs under the no. 98.
On September 19, 2008, a vermilion Merkur was auctioned in Vienna's Dorotheum for 26,900 euros, the starting price was 22,000 euros.
On March 2, 2010, a used vermilion Mercury with a missing upper left corner was sold for CHF 34,000 at the Swiss auction house Corinphila. This piece comes from the Ferrary collection and was sold at the 8th Ferrary auction in Paris in November 1923 under the No. 101 sold for 8,800 French francs.
On November 18, 2011, a stamped vermilion Merkur with a stamp from Prague was auctioned at the Schwanke auction house in Hamburg for 84,200 euros.
On November 5, 2015, an unused vermilion Merkur with full original gum was auctioned at the Felzmann auction house in Düsseldorf for 40,000 euros plus buyer's premium.
Due to the high value of vermilion Mercury, it was the victim of numerous forgeries . The Austrian stamp dealer Sigmund Friedl and the master forger Jean de Sperati took on the counterfeiting of this newspaper stamp.
literature
- Richard Zimmerl: Vermillion Mercury. In: The May 1999 postage stamp , page 37
- Dr. Ullrich Ferchenbauer: Austria 1850-1918 from 2000, pages 285-300
- Peter Fischer: Mercury (s). In: Deutsche Briefmarken-Zeitung issue No. 6/2007, p. 26
- An almost forgotten Austrian innovation (newspaper brands). In: Die Briefmarke Issue No. 10/2011, pp. 19–21
- Red Mercury. In: Julius Kaufmann: Twelve famous postage stamps. Self-published, Tel Aviv 1960, pp. 100–109
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfram Grallert and Waldemar Gruschke: Lexicon of Philately; transpress VEB publishing house for traffic; 3rd edition 1976; P. 286
- ^ Wil: record price for two stamps. In: 20 minutes . May 9, 2007, accessed December 17, 2019 .