Hradcany
30 Heller stamp
By Lubor Kunc (
The article has been published in the Czechoslovak Specialist No. 3
/ 2008 issued by Society for Czechoslovak Philately, USA
Many stamp collectors are
interested in Hradcany issue being a classic stamp set of
The 30 Heller Hradcany stamp
was issued on April 12, 1920 and reached press run of 36 millions stamps. It is listed under number 13 in POFIS
catalogue of Czechoslovak stamps. First unusualness of the stamp is its picture
creating stamp drawing no. 6 (marked “ea” in current Czech catalogues). The
picture seems a bit raw in comparison to pictures of other Hradcany stamps –
try to compare a 30 Heller stamp with 75 Heller one and the difference in
picture is clearly seen. In addition, the stamp is known in two colors – in
light and dark violet (fig. 1).
Fig.
1 – light and dark 30 Heller violet stamps on money orders
The 30 Heller stamp was
issued during third period of Czechoslovak postal tariff lasting only from
March 15 to July 31, 1920. This period belongs to the shortest tariff periods
of Czechoslovak history and postal covers really sent during it are not very
often to be found.
Value of 30 Heller was at
that tariff period useful for
domestic money order up to 50 Crowns (fig. 2)
domestic letter up to 20 grams (fig.
3)
additional postage over basic weight rate for
international letters.
Fig.
2 – money order sent on from Rychnov na
Moravě (now Rychnov / Kneznou)
Fig.
3 – domestic letter sent from Smichov (
After expiration of the 3rd
tariff period, the 30 Heller stamps were used in mixed frankings with other
Hradcany stamps, but also with other Czechoslovak stamp issues. Nice example is
domestic postcard tariff being increased to 40 Heller in 4th tariff
period, where the 30 Heller stamps were often used for the new postage (fig. 4).
Fig.
4 – domestic postcard sent from Usti/Orlici
to
The 30 Heller stamp was
issued both perforated and imperforated. The most common is “B” perforation 11
¾ covering 99% of all existing 30 Heller stamps. The remaining part of
the press run was perforated by many other perforations (incl. some ministerial
ones). Nobody is able to find how many
stamps were perforated by the alternative perforations, the press run of these
“other” stamps was never officially confirmed, but they belong to rarest
Czechoslovak stamps.
|
Perforation |
Size |
Perforation |
Size |
|
A |
13 ¾:
13 ½ |
E |
11 ½ : 13 ¾ |
|
B |
11 ¾ |
J |
11 ¾: 11 ½ |
|
C |
13 ¾ |
K |
11 ¾: 13 ¾ |
|
D |
11 ½ |
|
|
Fig. 5 – overview of perforations applicable on 30 Heller
stamp
In addition, small part of
whole issue remained imperforated. Few
sheets of the imperforated stamps were delivered by error to Janske Lazne post
office, where they were used during June and July
- Letter sent on June 23, 1920 from Janske lazne at
Mrs. V. Starostova of Liboun franked with a corner piece of imperforated
30 Heller Hradcany stamp (ex Pytlicek) .
- Postcard sent from Janske lazne on July 20, 1920
to
- Letter sent from Janske lazne to
- Letter sent to Karlin from Janske lazne, checked
by Karasek (ex Klein) .
Example of money order
franked with imperforated stamp is shown in “Vzacnosti a zajimavosti cs.
znamek” .
Stamp collectors being lucky
to find these imperforated stamps provided them sometimes with postal cancels
of other post offices making them “useful” for their collections of cancelled
stamps. We know imperforated 30 Heller stamps e.g. with cancels of Praha 1,
Praha 13, Praha – Vsesokolsky slet 1920 or Hermanuv Mestec post offices. Unfortunately,
stamps with these cancels have lower value, because they have never been really
sent, but only created by collectors being at that time interested in majority
in cancelled stamps … .
And this is not last
interesting thing being connected with the stamp! Mr. Miroslav Krejny
discovered different types of the 30 Heller stamps in 1994. He informed about
his discovery in Filatelie journal no. 2/1994 on page 57. First type has a white dot in right part of
the stamp and no smudge on left side. The second type has no dot in right, but
has a smudge in the left (fig. 6).
Both types of the stamp are situated in the same plates, so joined-types are
known.
I.
II.
Fig.
6 – types description of 30 Heller stamps
Fig. 7:
money order franked with 1st
type of 30 Heller stamp
Fig. 8: parcel
dispatch note franked with 2nd
type of 30 Heller stamp and in addition with 5 Crowns stamp of T. G.
Masaryk issue of 1920
Very nice are joined-types
used on money orders or parcel dispatch notes. I like them very much, they document
us a real postal operation of that time. In addition, the types
incl. joined-types of the stamp are not very popular among collectors, and
still now you can find them among “normal” postal items. One of the reasons could
be that however the types are mentioned in almost every catalogue of
Czechoslovak stamps, their pricing and any additional information is usually
missing. I found some copies of the joined-types for my collection, here are
few examples:
Fig. 9 – Money order for transfer of up to 2.200 Crowns sent
from Cerveny Kostelec on Sept. 3, 1920 ; the 30 Heller stamps are perforated 11
¾ (B) ; the individual stamps show following types - II+I+II+I (front page) ; II+II (backside up)
; II ; I (backside down)
Fig. 10 - Joined types of 30 Heller Hradcany stamp on a money
order (transfer of up to CSK 800,-).
Very shifted stamp perforation B 11 ¾, cancellation Dobrichovice,
Aug. 6, 1920.
Fig. 11 - Joined types of 30 Heller Hradcany stamps on a
money order (transfer of max. CSK
1.000,-). Stamp perforation B 11
¾, cancellation Krtiny, July 8, 1920. Joined types I+II+I+I; II+II ;
II+I .
Fig. 12 - Parcel dispatch note sent from Teplice-Šanov in
June 1920 franked with joined-types of 30 Heller Hradčany stamps .
The 30 Heller Hradcany stamp
was not used only as definative stamp being valid on whole Czechoslovak
territory, but it was issued also with SO 1920 overprint for plebiscite area of
Eastern Silesia and
First stamps of the issue
were put into circulation in Feb. 1920. The 30 Heller violet Hradcany stamp
having SO 1920 overprint was issued on June 21, 1920 and it was valid (together
with other stamps of the special issue) only until Aug. 10, 1920. The press run of the stamp amounted to
1.150.000 copies of perforated stamp (B perforation). Despite to the fact, we
find this stamp value not very often on really sent covers (fig. 13).
The different types (and
joined-types) can be also found on SO 1920 stamps created from original 30
Heller Hradcany issue.
Fig. 13 – The 30 Heller Hradcany stamps overprinted with SO
1920 of 1st and 2nd types
(bearing postal cancels of Post Office of Czechoslovak Prefect in Polish
zone of Tesin area)
There are also known imperforated
copies of the stamp having SO 1920 overprint, but these stamps have never been
official issued. Surprisingly, the imperforated 30 Heller Hradcany stamp with
SO 1920 overprint is much cheaper than the same stamp without the overprint.
The only explanation of the crazy situation is philatelic background of the
imperforated SO 1920 stamps.
I hope this article showed
you how interesting the discussed stamp is and that yet now we can find
interesting items among “usual” covers and cuttings, however many of the stamp
variants belong to “top” items of Czechoslovak philately.
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