The Czechoslovak Stamp Issue In Honour of T. G. Masaryk´s Death

by Lubor Kunc

Originally published in the Czechoslovak Specialist No. 2 / 2000

This year we are commemorating the 150 anniversary of birth of the first Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. However the anniversary relates to the birth of the President - Liberator, I would like to draw your attention to the stamp set issued in 1937 to commemorate his death.

The ex-President died on September 14, 1937. Immediately after his death it was decided to issue stamps in honor of this occasion. Thanks to luck of time, it was agreed to issue 2 stamps based on older issues.

Fig. 1

On September 18 (only 4 days after President´s death !) the 50hal stamp with his portrait based on the same stamp issued in 1930 was issued . No change of drawing was made, the only changes relate to the color of the stamp (original stamp of 1930 is green, the newly issued one was black) and to size of used perforation.

On September 20, 1937 the second stamp of the set was issued. The face value of the stamp is 2 crowns. The stamp issued for Masaryk´s death was based on the older stamp issued in March 1935 to commemorate President´s 85th birthday .

You can find some changes occurred on this stamp. The only change in drawing of the stamp was the change of dates located below the inscription Československo. The original stamp of 1935 bears the years 1850 and 1935. The stamp issued in 1937 bears the date of death, that means 14.IX. 1937. The original stamp is blue, the in 1937 issued one is black. The size of perforation is different as well.

The more important change relates to the tabs. The tabs of original stamp issue of 1935 were free of any text or picture with exception of two stamps of whole counter sheet. The tabs of these two stamps contained the date 7. III. 1935 and plate number . All tabs of new issue bears the inscription T.G. Masaryk / zasloužil se o stát (= T.G. Masaryk / he played important role in creating of the state) . T.G. Masaryk was laid in rest on September 21, 1937.

Similar mourning cancellation was used also on another post offices in whole Czechoslovakia in September and October 1937 (e.g. at the post office Prague 28 - Senat) . There is also known an error in the cancellation : instead inscription “Smutek Československa“ you can sometimes find inscription “Smutek Českoslevenska“ .

It is hard to find an entire of September or early of October properly franked with the mourning issue. A lot of people put both stamps on everything to get a souvenir to Masaryk´s death. There is huge quantity of cards/letters franked with both stamps without any regard to postal rates. As the longer time from Masaryk´s death passed, the people start to use the mourning issue as any other stamp issue. In this time the stamps were used as per postal rates.

Fig. 2 – Registered letter sent on Sept. 19, 1937 by Presidental Office to a Prazske noviny Newspaper ; bears the mourning cancelation of Praha 10 - Prague Castle Post Office

The stamp issue was valid in Czechoslovak Republic as well as in "independent" Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia and Slovak Republic (born on March 14/15, 1939, when the Protectorate and Slovak State substituted the former Czechoslovakia) . There exist mixed frankings of the Czechoslovak stamp issue and stamps issued by Protectorate and Slovakia, because the stamps of the mourning set were valid until December 15, 1939 .

By the last entire we can go back to begin of the article. It was probably better, that President Masaryk died in 1937 and doesn´t see the fall of his Czechoslovak Republic !

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