Warsaw Local Stamps Revisited

There was a brief discussion of Warsaw locals in an "i.d. these" thread a while back.

Here is a 5g with a handstamped surcharge to 6g



According to the great little pdf found here:
http://www.ekpv.nl/verzamelingwarsawtownpost.pdf
the 5g rate wasn't easily paid using the Russian money floating around Warsaw, where 1 kopeck was worth 2 groszy. So the rate was raised to 6g (3 kopecks).

The cancel is an oval, and (again, according to the pdf) was one of four postal cancellations used in Warsaw.

Here are two other issues, both surcharged, and showing the bridge cancels:





Around the top of the ring is K.O.m.st.W., which stands for Komitet Obywatelski miasta sto#322;ecznego Warszawy, translated as "Citizens Committee of the Capital City of Warsaw." Around the bottom of the circle is Poczta Miejska, which translates as "town post."

I'll leave the details of the surcharge varieties to the pdf file, if anyone is interested.

[edit: Here is the oval cancel pulled from the pdf file:

Warsaw from Katalog Popularny 1984

Thanks for that excerpt!

The 2gr surcharge with rosettes has a variety found in one position, where the right rosette has 6 petals rather than 8. (For what its worth...something to look for.)

These issues are also covered in some detail in the catalogue "Poland Locals" by A. Hall published by John Barefoot in 1981.

That one is still on my list...the long list, not the short list.

I was at sixes and sevens as to where to post these,
hope you don't mind Collin.
At least will give readers a chance to look at the
stamp designs originally produced for
the Warsaw citizens post, although these
have been optd for general use.

Shows clearly the mermaid of warsaw.

As good a place as any...

Here is an example of the police cancel mentioned in the pdf linked above:




This is commissioner's office #4. The ring translates to 'Police Post of the Capital City Warsaw.' According to the pdf, this is a revenue cancel and not a postal cancel, as it shows payment of a government tax.

Picked up another handful of these guys...here is a 6g bisect, intended for paying the printed matter rate:




Of course, it is not easy to know when this might have been crafted. Still nice to see, though.

Here is an Essay of Fi/Mi III


(not shown in the fantastic PDF)

Interesting piece. Thanks for sharing it.

Actually we know exactly when those bisects were 'crafted', and that is virtually when the stamps were issued.

Apart from the current Fischer Polish catalogue there are five main references I know of for the Warsaw Municipal Post.

1) 'Polskie Znaki Pocztowe', Bialystock, 1935. pp.196-225
This was reprinted virtually verbatum in
2) 'Polskie Znaki Pocztowe' Vol. 4, Warsaw 1966. pp. 1105-1130

Based on the collection & research of Stanislaw Rembielinski who was the first to seriously study these issues. He had access to the Post's archives in Warsaw as well as the printers of the stamps.

Unfortunately the Warsaw archives were destroyed in the Warsaw uprising, however, unbeknownst to Rembielinsk, Karol Jenke, the Organisor & Director of the Warsaw Municipal Post, had deposited much archival material in the Postal Museum in Wroclaw & much of this is still available which leads us to the 3rd reference by the philatelist & keeper of the Postal Museum, Alexander Sniezko.

3) 'Poczta Mieiska Miasta St. Warszawy 1915-1918', Alexander Sniezko, Warsaw, 1965.
This booklet of 143 pages expands on the information previously published with photos of the buildings & people involved, stamp printing figures, postbox locations, etc.

Finally, I have
4) 'Stadpost der Hauptstadt Warschau 1915-1918', Stefan Petriuk, Langballig, 1980.

Stefan is a contemporary collector of Polish material, he has posted some of his collections online & they are all mouth-watering in their scope. His booklet of 90 pages has much of the same material previously published but includes other photos & illustrations of covers & cards relevant to the Post & is in German as opposed to the first three which are in Polish (why didn't I pay more attention in German class 50 years ago?)

As previously mentioned
5) 'Poland 1918 Locals' J. Barefoot Ltd., now in it's 3rd edition.
This is a must-have for English-speaking collectors & is a comprehensive catalogue of the stamps with much info on the forgeries, reprints etc. & the latest edition is in colour, nice.

A couple of things come out of the info available here which reflect on Ben Nieborg's pdf file of the Post.

The first is that virtually all of the colour varieties, imperfs, inverts, perf varieties, overprints in different colours, etc. were no more than machinations of the printers at the time. The back door of the printers led straight to the dealers of the day. There are proofs of some of the stamps, these are listed in Fischer, but in such small quantities that we rarely see them.

The second thing to note is that most cancelled bisects are philatelic in nature. The Municipal Post never authorised the bisecting of stamps. Rembielinski undertook a study of the bisects & found that maybe on the 5/12/1915 & 3/3/1915 non-philatelic bisects were used.

So as to ease the burden on the Post's employees in regard to philatelic mail, the Post loaned their cancellors to stamp dealers, you can see where this went, the dealers had a field day.

Here's my copy of the unnisued first issue


Looks good doesn't it - well it isn't. The genuine article was printed in black, under 20x magnification you can see that my reprint is brown-black. You see these on ebay, buyer beware...

I have a basic collection of stamps & covers of this issue, nothing out of the ordinary, except for this one item which is a proof of one of the unnissued set of four which were overprinted in 1918 for use in newly independent Poland

Super info.

Thanks for taking the time to share it.

I'll have to put an asterisk next to my "printed matter" notations.