The Screaming Baby Of Slovenia - Kingdom Of Shs

Oh I just noticed that Bamra's blue Screaming baby and his 10k Peter have Zagreb (Croatia) cancels.

I will try.

During WW1 Serbia was invaded by the Central Powers, so the dinar ceased to be in legal circulation; it was replaced by the
Austrian Krone/Hungarian Krona (these were at parity, and differed only in their spelling and the name of their centile divisions - Heller/Filler). After the Serbian army retook Serbia the Dinar was restablished. But by this time, with the Central Powers in retreat, the Krone/a had considerably devalued.

After the establishment of the SHS:
Montenegro and Macedonia took the same name and valuation as Serbia viz. Dinar/Para
Croatia used the names Kruna/Fillar
Slovenia used the names Krone/Vinar
Bosnia used the names Kruna/Heller

These last three, in spite of the name changes, were esentially on par with the devalued Austro-Hungarian currency. So they were valid throughout the SHS and exchangeable for the Serbian currency, but at an exchange rate of 3:1.

After a year (Dec 1919)the rate increased to 4:1. From then on National banknotes were issued with denominations in both Dinas and Krone.

So in May 1920 for example, the postal rate was Postcards 15 para OR 60 vinar etc; Letters 25 paras OR 1 krone etc.

As preparation for a unified currency, in June 1920 all new stamps had to be denominated in Dinars/Paras only. Slovenia produced a new issue and overprinted old ones. Neither Bosnia nor Croatia issued any more stamps, and awaited the issue of 'National' SHS stamps in Jan 1921. After this the bi-denominational banknotes were phased out, and the Dinar/Para became the only currency.

Before 1921 all stamps produced by any of the SHS regionswere postally valid anywhere within the SHS.

Thanks for all the excellent information Bamra1, that answers a lot of questions! It will be interesting to see what cancels are legible on the batch of Chain Breakers shown above, when they arrive.

It is interesting to note that the Slovenia issues were not specifically inscribe with their country name, unlike the Bosnia and Croatia.

I know what you mean; but as someone who lives both in the UK and in one of its constituent parts, I know that using the word 'country' in this kind of situation involves walking on eggshells.

I am confident that the government's major priority was that the name of the country, which was of course SHS, should appear on all the stamps. It did - with the exception of the ex-Bosnian newspaper stamps, which had never had any name on, and the 1919/20 stamps of Serbia, to which I shall return.

So long as that basic principle was adhered to, I doubt if they were too worried as to whether the stamp also bore the name of the region in which it had been produced.

In Bosnia it did - that does not surprise me, given that their region had no mention in the SHS title!

In Croatia it did - that doesn't surprise me given the strength of nationalist/separatist feeling in Croatia, and the reservations they had about a Serbian monarch and a centralised government based in ex-Serbia.

In Slovenia it didn't - that doesn't surprise me, because Slovenia's desire had been primarily to get out of Austria, where Slavs were in a minority, rather than all-out independence.

The ones who, at first sight, might have been candidates for the Naughty Step are in fact the Serbians, none of whose post 1917 emissions has SHS on them. But in fact the bulk of these stamps were issued before (and therefore presumably set up well before) the establishment of the SHS. After that no new plates were produced, and the 1919/20 issues were merely new printings from the old plates.

Thanks again for more valuable information Bamra1. Now I know how to write up my album pages.

Bamra1, is there any way to tell the differences between the Ljubljana and Vienna printings of the perforated 11.5 Screaming Babies? I received my lot shown above plus another one I won.

Actually I wonder also about the perforated Chain Breakers, the Parrot Lady and King Peter.

PROVIDEDthat you have accurately picked out the rouletted from the perf (and that is by no means as easy as it sounds) the higher denominations - 60v and above - are as follows:

a) all rouletted are Ljubljana
b) all on thin, hard semi-translucent paper are Ljubljana
c) all on greyish paper are Vienna
d) all p11 as opposed to p11.5 are Vienna
e) all on white paper are Vienna - except (f)
f) the 2k on white paper is tricky; the Ljubljana is ultramarine and the paper is slightly thinner;the Vienna is blue to indigo and on slightly thicker paper.

The chainbreakers are as follows:

a) all lithos are Ljubljana. I presume your catalogue lists the variations which distinguish the lithos from the typos (short/long chains etc) but if not, let me know and I will post them here.
b) all rouletted are Ljubljana
c) all on thin, hard semi-translucent paper are Ljubljana
d) all on greyish paper are Vienna
e) all p11 as opposed to p11.5 are Vienna
f)10v Ljubljana is red and on thinner paper; Vienna scarlet and on thicker paper
g)15v Ljubljana is a greyer blue and on thinner paper; Vienna is a brighter or greeny blue and on thicker paper
h) hopefully by this point you will have sussed out the papers, because that's really the only way to distinguish the 20v and 30v - so hard luck if they are on cover!

Bamra1: Please explain how to tell the difference between the perforated and rouletted varieties. The catalogues are clear as mud on the subject.

Bamra1: Do you have information on chain breaker forgeries and others in that era?