Gallery

 

“Stamp War” - 1938-1939
In 1937, the Ministry of Post and Telegraphy in Poland organized a competition. The Ministry was planning to issue a set of stamps with scenes of Polish historical events, commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the Republic in 1938. The Ministry chose, in co-operation with representatives of science, art and philately, thirteen themes for the stamps:

5 gr.: Bolesraw Chrobry: Meeting in Gnieno in the year 1000
10 gr.: Kazimierz Wielki: Meeting in Krak6w in the year 1364
15 gr.: Wfadisfaw Jagiello: Grunwald 1410
20 gr.: Kazimierz Jagiell’or{czyk: In the background a map from the Jagiefl’on-era 1447-1492
25 gr.: Zygmunt August: Union of Lublin 1569
30 gr.: Stefan Batory: Wielki Luki
45 gr.: Chodkiewicz and Zólkiewski with the coat of arms of the Vasa
50 gr.: Jan III Sobieski at Vienna
55 gr.: Constitution of 3 May
75 gr.: Kociusko, Poniatowski and D?browski
1 zI, : 183 1: Heroism of Polish soldiers
2 zI. : Romuald Traugutt: 1863
3 zl. : Field Marshall JozefPirsudski: In the background, an allegory of the years 1914-1920.

For this competition, a total of 121 designs of 52 artists were turned in. The three competitive designs made by Waclaw Boratyrski of Poznan were awarded a prize. Because his designs met the artistic and technical requirements the best, the Ministry asked him to design the other stamps too, to get an identical outlook. Only the 2 zf. and 3 zI’. stamps were designed by M. Wtorek of Warszawa and Prof. Zygmunt Rozwadowsly of LwCw, respectively.

On 1 December, 1937, the Ministry of Post and Telegraphy sent a confidential letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warszawa. They wanted to issue some stamps for the Polish post in the Free City of Danzig, together with the stamps that are mentioned above. These stamps should also replace the Polish stamps with the surcharge PORT GDANSK, that were used by the Polish post in Danzig. In 1938, the Ministry of post and Telegraphy also wanted to replace the inscription Poczta Poiska (Polish post) by only the word Polska on the stamps.

Together with the letter, a design for the stamps for the Polish post in Danzig of Boratyn’ski was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Boratyriski had chosen a neutral design for the stamp, because depicting a certain person or event of the history of Danzig, in a way that avoided hurting feelings either in Poland or in Danzig, proved to be very difficult. With the design, he portrayed the grain trade between Polish noblemen and a Citizen of Danzig in front of the Krantor at the Mottlau in the 16th century, Boratynski wanted to show the great importance of the harbor of Danzig for the Polish trade in this way. Polish historians said that the design was historically correct and would not cause any troubles. The Ministry of Post and Telegraphy decided to use no stamps with the similar design for the post in Poland, because they didn’t want to damage the political relations between Poland and Danzig.

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 80 - October - November - December - 1993, Page 3.