DDR 1948 Or 1953?

Dan,

I have a lot of questions. But I did just purchase both volumes of the Michel Deutschland Spezial. Hopefully it will help clarify variations that I am seeing that Scott doesn't. However, I do have a couple of stamps that I just cannot find in Scott at all - nor on the interwebs for that matter. I have a Rotes Kreuz 50pf (I am assuming pfennig) stamp. It appears to have been cancelled in Freiberg in 1954. It is on the same cover as a green 10pf "Sower" stamp with the "Sowjetishe Besatzungs Zone" overprint. I cannot find the red cross stamp anywhere. I have tried to include a photo below.

Any ideas?

[URL="https://flic.kr/p/C1DiAL][/url][URL="https://flic.kr/p/C1DiAL]rotes kreuz2[/url] by [URL="https://www.flickr.com/photos/61366748@N00/]epoints2k[/url], on Flickr

Will this help? http://www.philaseiten.de/cgi-bin/i...ST=4271&CP=9

data, here's the link to your image. Looks like your link got boogered up.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/61366...23636121996/

Here's your red cross stamp. It's a Spendenmarke from 1953.

Thanks KGB! PostmasterGS, I think you nailed it! How did they work? Did the Red Cross issue the stamp, or did the postal service? Are they common?

I have seen the surcharge stamps like Reichs Post B5 A34 and semi-postals, where a portion of the face value goes to some cause, but this is the only one of its kind I have found so far in my collection.

databanks,

The link PostmasterGS provided http://www.ddr-spendenmarken.de/uebersicht1.php is probably the best website for Spendenmarken.

As I understand the system, people donated money to various organizations in exchange for these "stamps." Some organizations also provided "albums" to collect the stamps. They couldn't be redeemed and had no postal value. They were simply an acknowledgment of a donation to the organization.

It is another collecting specialty. I treat them like Cinderellas.

Dan