Guest Articles

Here, you’ll find links to articles that members or friends have asked us to host “in public”.

    • The Return Receipt (RR) service in the Austrian Empire to 1875.
      The exhibit covers all entities that were part of the Austrian Empire, or from 1867 part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austrian advice-of-receipt service, known mostly as Retour Recepisse, began at least as early as 1779, and was used extensively throughout the Empire. Comments, suggestions, corrections, criticisms are welcome and solicited (don’t pull any punches, I have thick skin). I can be reached at rochelle2@sympatico.ca.
    • The Richard Krueger Collection.
      It is the wish of Richard Krueger and his descendants that the Richard A. Krueger Collection as a whole is accessible to those interested in philately and for further research. Sub-collections are presented here to provide an insight into the broad range of Krueger’s collection activities. His collection forms one of the foundations for his 13 books (including revisions), the best-known of which are Censorship of the Civil Mails in Occupied Austria 1945-1955 (multiple editions); US Military Postal Facilities (APOs) operating in Austria 1945-1955; The Allied Military Government Stamp Issue for Austria 1945; and POW and DP Facilities in Occupied Austria 1945-1950.
    • The 1890 Austrian Empire definitive issue
      This issue offers all the features one could desire to move from stamp collector to philatelist, as it provides colour, paper, perforation, size variations, postal history, and postal stationary without needing to spend a fortune. An added bonus is that as one acquires the stamps, an interest in postmarks is bound to arise leading into a whole new dimension. It took me a long time to work out how to present this material in a manner that allowed the collection to grow without the need for constant change. The exception are the postmarks as they have spilled over into stockbooks that need re arranging as collections grows. Comments, questions are welcome and you can contact me at karel.michielsen@gmail.com
    • The History of Czechoslovakia 1918-1992.
      This is an overview of the display given by Yvonne Wheatleyto members at the CPSGB London meeting in November 2023. It demonstrates how the history of a country is reflected in its stamps and postal history. We thank the Editor of Czechout, and the author, for permission to reproduce this article.
    • The Newspaper Postage Stamps of Austria
      Austria issued special stamps for over 70 years, from 1 January 1851 to 28 February 1922, for the inland postage of officially-registered newspapers. They were sold only to registered (and approved) newspaper publishers, to prepay a discounted postage rate. This exhibit shows these stamps, including shade variations, cancellations, perforations, official & private imprints, and type differences; with examples of them in use. The system was evolved to facilitate postal subscriptions via the Post Office. The reduced-rate newspaper stamps were supplied only to designated post offices, where newspaper publishers could buy them, in whole sheets only, for cash. The special rate was per-copy, including (without weight limits until 1920) all the supplements so beloved by Austrian newspapers. Where several copies were addressed to a specific delivery post office, they had to be address-labelled and franked, then posted in one bundle addressed to that post office. The cancellation of their stamps was done at the delivery post office. If there was only one addressee at that office, its wrapper had its stamp cancelled by the originating post office. Many of the cancellers were not used on ordinary mail. From 1900, publishers could commission private wrappers for one or more copies, imprinted with the same design as the loose stamps but often in different colours. Separate Newspaper Sections existed in the larger post offices, to handle newspapers, to accept subscriptions, and to sell the discounted stamps.
    • The Austrian Newspaper Tax
      The display whose sheets are presented here contains examples of signets and of adhesives on newspapers, and of loose adhesives illustrating cancellations and varieties. Special usages and situations are illustrated. The subtly different arrangements for Lombardy-Venetia are shown. A 52-page article The Austrian Newspaper Tax is provided, with considerably more information.
    • The Schafbergbahn is a 1000mm gauge rack railway located in the Salzkammergut region (Austria’s lake district) in the provincial state of Upper Austria. The Salzkammergut region is famous for its many lakes dotted in between high, rocky mountains with the Dachstein glacier (2995m) towering above the whole landscape.
    • The Schneeberg, “The Snow Mountain”, with its 2076 metre-high summit Klosterwappen, is the highest mountain in Lower Austria and the most easterly 2000 metre mountain in the Alps. A 1000mm gauge rack-and-pinion railway, Schneebergbahn, climbs up from Puchberg to heights of over 1200metres.