Subscriber Bonus Stamps

Those who subscribe to the New Issue service of the Austrian Post Office receive one or more copies of a specially-printed stamp each year. These have been de-listed by Stanley Gibbons: a boxed memo on page 124 of the 8th edition of Part 2 says:

Correction: The following three stamps are now de-listed, as we have received information confirming that they were never on sale to the general public, but only supplied free-of-charge to Austrian Post subscribers.

Under that it says "Nos 2940, 2991 and 3051 are therefore now vacant" followed by an illustration of the offending 1 Sept 2008 stamp (Ranunculus). In their numerical place are S.G. 2991 Anemonies of 1 Sept 2009 and S.G. 3051 Rosa centifolia Bullata of 1 Sept 2010. Later years aren’t there at all. The ANK/Netto Special Catalogue lists these with numbers ANK 2787, 2849, and 2916 respectively, adding to each that they were issued free to subscribers.


2008 Ranunculus ANK 2787 1.9.2008	2009 Anemonies ANK 2849 1.9.2009	2010 Rosa centifolia Bullata ANK 2916 1.9.2010

In 2011 no subscriber’s stamp was issued. In 2012 they restarted, now in Spring instead of September.


2012 Blumenstrauß (bouquet) ANK 3010 15.2.2012	2013 Sonnenblumen (sunflowers) ANK 3078 13.2.2013	2014 Hundszahnlilie (dog’s tooth lily) ANK 3148 7.2.2014

2015 Kuhschelle (Pasque flower) ANK 3228 7.3.2015	2016 Feuerlilie ANK 3281 5.3.2016	2017 Gelber Frauenschuh (Yellow Lady’s Slipper) ANK 3357 4.3.2017

2018 Gelber Rhododendron ANK 3407 3.3.2018	2019 Klatschmohn (common or Remembrance poppy) ANK 3472 9.3.2019	2020 Blaue Passionsblume (blue passion flower) ANK 3531 7.3.2020

2021 Camellia ANK 3590 6.3.2021	2022 (Atropa belladonna) Schwarze Tollkirsche (deadly nightshade) ANK 3647 5.3.2022	2023 (Iris germanica) Schwertlilie ANK xxx 4.3.2023

The present system is that they work out how much you have spent in a year, then send you a corresponding number of the special stamps in the following spring. A typical "one of everything sensible" collector would get 5 or 6 each year. The stamps look exactly like those you can buy at the post office, and have the face value of a standard inland letter. Also, if you buy stamps etc at specified places (eg a Philatelie-Shop or the Christkindl Post Office) you can obtain a Treubonusblatt. This has spaces containing "EUR 10" (or 50) and a posthorn; if you spend 10 Eu (or 50Eu) a space will be 'cancelled'; and if you send the card in during the following March you'll get one Bonus Stamp for every 50Eu you spent.

The Bonus Stamps are valid for postage but you can't buy them - they are only issued to subscribers and purchasers. So they are not listed in the catalogues, except for ANK/Netto (published in Austria) which calls them "Treubonusmarke".

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