More Revenue Stamps

Wine


Playing Cards



Hunting


I think this should be a car tax stamp - but is it German? Would you have paid taxes on both export and import?

The Blue one is a Postal Tax stamp from Berlin. Scott does list it and give an explination as to it's use(or at least they used to).

The Last one is the Notopfer stamp, commonly referred to
as "The Blue Flea"
------------------------------

The origins of this stamp are in the June 21, 1948 Currency reform by
the western zones of Germany, which caught the Soviet with their pants
down and lead to a rushed currency reform in the Soviet (and Berlin)
on June 24th (June 25th in West Berlin). Emergency stamps were over-
printed in many post offices (the so-called "District Handoverprints")
every night to meet the next day's demand, until machine-overprinted
stamps became available on July 3rd.

This immediately lead to the Soviet Blockade of West Berlin and the
Berlin Airlift (Operation Vittles). The population of West Berlin
suffered greatly during the time of the blockade, which was not lifted
until May 12, 1949. (The Airlift continued until Sept. 30.)
As a means to defray the costs of this massive resupply operation and
to provide continuing assistance to the people of Berlin, the German
parliament (with military government approval) passed a law requiring a
2 Pfennig tax on various classes of mail. (Covers franked contrary to
this law exist, e.g. Notopers used to pay postage and ordinary stamps
used to pay the tax.)
The tax was to be paid ONLY by the "blue flea" stamp, first issued on
Dec. 1, 1948 and inscribed "NOTOPFER / 2 BERLIN / STEURMARKE". This
translates to "Emergency Victims / 2 Berlin / Tax Stamp". Although
this is technically a tax stamp, it was in fact sold by the post office
and it had no use other than on mail.



Covers franked contrary to this law exist, e.g. Notopers used to pay
postage and ordinary stamps used to pay the tax.
The Notopfer was not required on all pieces of mail. Initially, the
Notopfer was required only in the Bizone (combined American and British
zones). It was later used in the French Zone (see below). It was never
used in Berlin itself. It was not required on mail to Berlin, on mail
to the Soviet Zone and on mail to foreign destinations. Examples used
inadvertently to the Soviet Zone or Berlin were often defaced and
returned by the Soviet Zone authorities (and are very collectable),

For mail that was not exempt per the above, initially every class of
mail required the Notopfer. This represented a 10% tax for letter mail,
but was a whopping 50% for printed matter. Businesses complained loudly
about this and printed matter was later made exempt.

Even official mail that was otherwise free required a Notopfer!

The period of use for the Notopfer was Dec. 1, 1948 to March 31, 1956,
thus surviving the transition from occupied Germany to Federal Republic.
Overall, more than 10 billion of the "fleas" were printed. Depending on
how specialized one wants to collect these, a collection could consist
of dozens, hundreds or even thousands of stamps. And then there's the
postal history ...
The French Zone was a bit of a maverick. They at first elected not to
participate. When they did, it was sporadic and with a few twists:

Baden used the Notopfer on July 1-2, 1949 and again from July 17 on.
They also designated that a portion of the funds would go to the
relief of Kehl (another interesting story).

Rhineland-Pfalz used the Notopfer in Feb. & March, 1949, and again
from July 1 on.

Wurttemberg used the Notopfer from Jan. 10 to May 31, 1949. For
the rest of the year they used overprinted Notopfers or specially
printed stamps, the proceeds of which went into a fund for housing
reconstruction. From Jan. 1, 1950 on they reverted to the use of
unoverprinted Notopers.

The area around Lindau caught a break, as the use of the housing
reconstruction stamps was not required there. This part of Bavaria
had been given to Wurttemberg so the French could have a corridor
to their zone in Austria.


The Notopers were even used in parts of Austria! - the mountainous
border areas that were served by the German post office since there was
no land access to the rest of Austria.

Getting back to basics, the Michel catalog, or a specialized handbook
by Harlos & Harlos, lists the various permutations of watermark and
perforation that makes this issue so interesting. I won't go into the
details here, except to mention one particular perforation used early
on.

Fantastic job Rod! But, WAAAAAYYY!! to much typing for my 2 finger method. One day I must learn to type!

The Yellow flea :

Thanks revstampman.

"On the shoulders of....."

That was the result of a two week to and fro,
from an old newsgroup, Jay Carrigan was the major
contributor IIRC.
In the end, we all knew what that little tacker was used for.

It would be a collecting discipline all by itself.

Sometime it amazes me how these thing come about but with the follow up story from Rod this little flea is quite interesting,thanks B for posting this German BOB also Eric and Rod for adding to this thread .

Rod, I think that is the 1st time I have ever seen the Yellow Flea. Thanks for posting it.

I'm that slow at typing you bloke added three replies before I finished my first

I said I type with 2 fingers. But, I didn't say I type slowly!

Thanks guys!

Looks like that bird hunting stamp is past its expiration date. Better throw it out and get a fresh one.

...moving right along,

this caught my eye in a 1988 sales catalogue from Rodney A Perry.
(for people with diamonds on the soles of their shoes)

Missus B if you going to through it out you can through it my way.

na just joking