Posted this in the bullseye forum and I'll also post it here.
Years ago I was able to purchase a couple of lots of Austria postal material with postcards and covers at the big Melbourne stamp club auction before the professional dealers wised up and bought the other lots at the next auctions.
I wanted to by a couple of more, but was outbid by another collector. His purchased lots had a bunch of material from the Levant and IMO he got a better deal.
Slowly going the through the stuff and maybe I'll get through it and maybe I won't. Lots of Pneumatic cards in the lot which need a lot of work.
I took out the ones I want to keep (The other Austria card came from these lots) and these are a couple of them.
In 1900 Austria had a change of currency going from the silver backed kreuzer and gulden to the kronen and heller gold based standard. 1 kreuzer equalled 2 heller.
About the same time the rates on postal items was changed with the postcard rate going from 2 kreuzer to 5 heller.
Or in old currency 2 ˝ kreuzer.
As a result of shortages of 1 heller stamps bisects were authorized.
So 1 kreuzer stamps could be bisected and used as two 1 heller stamps.
Here are examples of two postcards with the 2 kreuzer imprints uprated with a bisected 1 kreuzer stamps to make the 5 heller rate.
Both also have socked on the nose cancels tying the stamps to the covers.
Philatelic?
Most likely, but nice examples of in period use.
The first cover has a 1 kreuzer stamps bisected and has a 9 1 00 SON cancel from Okrischko/Okrisko.
The second has a bisected 1 kreuzer postage due stamp with a SON 30 1 00 Schumburg cancel.
Posted 04/04/2021 06:26 am
