Gallery

Danzig The Germania Burelage Issue.

On June 14, 1920, the first Danzig stamps were issued on stamps of the Deutsches Reich overprinted by the German Printing office in Berlin with the word “Danzig”. As the initial stock of the first issue was depleted, the firm of Julius Sauer in Danzig was selected to print stamps for the Free City of Danzig. German stamp stock of the Germania issue was provided by the German Printing Office for overprinting in Danzig.

A new design for the pfennig values retained the German values, but covered the “Deutsches Reich” text with a bar and added the word “Danzig” in a slanted script (the so called Schrägdrucke issue). In addition, six different Mark values were over-printed on the pfennig stock. To make it more difficult to duplicate the Mark values, a wavy underprint (burelage) was first printed on the stamps. These underprinted stamps were then overprinted with the new Mark values and the word “Danzig”.

This exhibit shows the types of burelage, the basic values from the three printings, double burelage, triple burelage, values without burelage, double overprints, plate flaws, printing errors and other varieties.

These stamps were valid for postal use between August 20, 1920 and December 31, 1922. As the first signs of inflation began to appear, rates were adjusted upwards. During this period there were seven postal rate changes. This exhibit also shows a variety of different usages of the burelage issue, alone, and in combination with both earlier issues and with those that followed later during the valid period. Many of the burelage Mark issue were used both on covers and on package cards. Both usages are shown in this exhibit.