Legionary Issue 1919

by Lubor Kunc (lubor.kunc@seznam.cz)

 

published in the Czechoslovak Specialist Journal  (www.csphilately.org)

 

 

 

This is probably the most unpopular stamp set of Czechoslovakia 1918-1939 (together with Pošta Československá 1919 issue). It seems, that 1919 was a critical year for Czechoslovak Postal Administration … .

 

The postal body decided to issue a special stamp set with surcharge for families of Czechoslovak legionaries injured or killed in the WWI. Important share of the money was reserved for legionaries in Russia, who were fighting with Bolshevik forces at time, when the stamp set was issued. The other reason for issuance of these stamps was celebration of the first anniversary of foundation of Czechoslovak Republic.  That is why they were put into circulation on Oct. 27, 1919.

 

The intention of Czechoslovak Postal Administration was to issue stamps being valid only few days and after withdrawing them from postal operation the stamps had to be acquired via Legionary Fund only. This measure had to earn a lot of money for the fund, because it was expected, that stamp collectors will be looking for the stamps.

 

The reality was totally different from these expectations and the philatelic public raised heavy complains to the postal administration rejecting the stamp issue as “useless” and “philatelic”. This negative attitude was later supported by finding the stamps were issued with different perforations as well as imperforated (some of the stamps were printed with rare perforations in small quantities in addition). Result was, that majority of the stamp issue remained unsold at post offices and they were later given to the Legionary Fund selling the stamps under their face value.

 

Because of above circumstances, the stamps were not very often used by public and majority of existing covers bears complete stamp set without respect to postal rates. These philatelic covers were produced by both philatelists and public to get souvenir for first birthday of Czechoslovakia. The really postally used covers were extremely rare (also due to extremely short period of validity – Oct. 27 – Nov. 3, 1919). Below you see few examples of interesting covers correctly franked with the issue.

 

  1. Postcard franked with 15 Heller stamp of Legionarske Issue, sent from Domazlice to Jindrichuv Hradec on Nov. 2, 1919 (Sunday). We can assume a philatelic background of the card, but it bears all sings of postal delivery incl. correct franking, so it is acceptable for our collections.

 

 

 

Fig. 1

 

  1. Registered letter franked 5x 15 Heller sent from Brno to Tovacov on Oct. 27, 1919 (= FDC). Mr. Meitner of Tovacov produced more such letters, but however they have philatelic background, they fully correspond to the valid postal rates.  In addition, ,  the letter bears arrival postmark of Tovacov post office dated Oct. 29, 1919 showing  it was really sent and not only cancelled upon request.

 

Fig. 2

 

  1. The last item is excellent example of non-philatelic usage of the Legionary set. We talk about a registered letter addressed to Chrudim Court of Justice, which was properly franked with 75 Heller Legionarske Issue. The cover was sent from Pardubice on unknown day.

 

 

Fig. 3

 

 

The last item (fig. 4) is very unusual. It is a parcel dispatch card sent on Oct. 31, 1919 from Lovosice (Lobositz) franked with mixed franking of Hradčany and Legionary stamps. The postage is correct , we can split it as follows:

This parcel dispatch note shows us, the Legionary stamps were used also in regular postal operations and not only at philatelic covers.

 

 

Fig. 4

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the covers improving credit of the Legionary stamp issue!

 

 

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