The English edition of the Michel catalog says
Quote:
Offical Counting Stamps
In contrast to the Empire (Reich) agencies, state agencies were not exempt from postage. It was, however, possible to enter into a franking privilege contract (Baden on 1.6.1886 under Nr. 16 and Prussia on 1.4.1894 under Nr. 21), by which all postage amounts were replaced by a lump sum payment. In order to check the actual usage of these amounts, official counting stamps were introduced.
In addition to these stamps, all free postage mailings from Baden and Prussia agencies had to have an official cancellation of a seal stamp.
The Prussian stamps, inscribed "21", were in use in 1903 to see if the amount of postage used was roughly the same as the lump sum payment. The Baden stamps, inscribed "16", were used for the same purpose in 1905.
The numbers corresponded to some scheme in which different parts or states of Germany were assigned district numbers. 21 being for Prussia and 16 for Baden. I do not know that the other districts were or what other significance these districts had.
Posted 06/13/2017 09:19 am
