Republic Of German Austria

Hello members,

I have a stamp from Republic of German Austria overprint Nachmarke letter N looks damage and the letter e looks broken in the middle, also the K looks incomplete, please advice. Mara

Opinion EFO
Perforation chad caught in the ink on K
Other rubbish in the type.

This is a postage due stamp, Austria J102. It's regular postage stamp 207, 15 heller bister, issued in 1920, and surcharged and overprinted, to the new value of 7 1/2 kronen. Nachmarke literally means "after stamp" so I guess it implies something that was put on the letter after the initial mailing. The new value, which is 50 times the original face value indicates that this was during a period of inflation, probably not as severe as in Germany at the same time, the highest denomination in Austrian stamps was 10,000 kr - in Germany it was 50 billion marks. As for the designation "German Austria" this is explained at the beginning of the Austria section in the Scott catalogue, after World War I the German-speaking part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire became a republic called at first Deutschoesterreich (German Austria) but soon was shortened to just Austria. The stamp listings show that this happened probably in 1922. As for the broken letters, it's probably a worn die, and wouldn't add much to the value, which is very little anyway, 25 cents either used or unused in the 2015 catalogue

Thank you all. Mara