Is This Type Pretty Common ?

I was looking for early Germany post cards and found a few..but I was curious about the Berlin label..they are probably fairly common but I have to ask !

Phil, that's not a label but a postal tax stamp.
They are pretty common. Probably everything going
out of Berlin at around that time had them.

Ok..thanks !!

There was a discussion of postal tax stamps here

Phil, are you looking for early German postcards in your boxes or
are you looking for them? I still have quite a few, some going back
to the late 1800's and early 1900's, up through the Reich era and
post-war 1940's.

Hi Larry, I was looking in the boxes..was thinking of showing one or two front and back..of course I like the stamp side !!

Hi philb

Those small blue stamps are referred to as "Blue Fleas". They got this name from mail carriers who considered them to be a nuisance. They were used to help reconstruct the city of Berlin after WW 2.

There are varieties of these stamps including some that are imperforate as well.

You might want to check the GPS's (German Philatelic Society) website and look at some of their exhibits and articles in there. I believe there is an rxhibit on the "Blue Fleas" Sorry, but I do not have the society's website offhand

Chimo

Bujutsu

I received this (snipped) on a query some years ago.
Author unknown.
HTH

The origins of this stamp are in the June 21, 1948 Currency reform by
the western zones of Germany, which caught the Soviet with their pants
down and lead to a rushed currency reform in the Soviet (and Berlin)
on June 24th (June 25th in West Berlin). Emergency stamps were over-
printed in many post offices (the so-called "District Handoverprints")
every night to meet the next day's demand, until machine-overprinted
stamps became available on July 3rd.

This immediately lead to the Soviet Blockade of West Berlin and the
Berlin Airlift (Operation Vittles). The population of West Berlin
suffered greatly during the time of the blockade, which was not lifted
until May 12, 1949. (The Airlift continued until Sept. 30.)
As a means to defray the costs of this massive resupply operation and
to provide continuing assistance to the people of Berlin, the German
parliament (with military government approval) passed a law requiring a
2 Pfennig tax on various classes of mail. (Covers franked contrary to
this law exist, e.g. Notopers used to pay postage and ordinary stamps
used to pay the tax.)
The tax was to be paid ONLY by the "blue flea" stamp, first issued on
Dec. 1, 1948 and inscribed "NOTOPFER / 2 BERLIN / STEURMARKE". This
translates to "Emergency Victims / 2 Berlin / Tax Stamp". Although
this is technically a tax stamp, it was in fact sold by the post office
and it had no use other than on mail.