1943/44 ŠIBENIK, triple mixed franking

At that time, the following postal tariffs were in force: 2 kn for the postcard, 3,5 kn for the letter, 9 kn for registration and 10 kn for the express delivery. Note that since there was a lack of lower values, tolerance up to the +/- 1 kn was tolerated as correct franking. The exchange rate for Šibenik I was 1 lire = 4 kn. Proper use of war tax surcharge for letters was: 2 kn before 15.06.1944 and 10 kn after that.

Letters, properly franked with all three issues, Šibenik I, Šibenik II and NDH definitives are very rare. 

1943/44 Šibenik local provisional issue, registered letter, properly franked with 12,8 kn (1,2 * 4 = 4,8 kn of Šibenik I, 3,5 * 2 = 7 kn of Šibenik II and 1 kn of NDH definitive), charged with 10 kn war tax, sent from Šibenik (26.VIII.44) to Split (31.VIII.44). Returned from Split (2.IX.44) due to the death of the recipient. Certificate Zrinjšćak.

1945 MARIBOR, Forgeries

Recently, there are a lot of fakes on the market, especially with various specialties like inverted or double overprints. Below are the two most common types of forgeries...

Genuine overprint

Sharp edges and homogeneous structure of color are the most important features of the genuine overprint.

Forgery A
The wavy line in the middle is not thinner. Upper curvature of the letter S in Yugoslavia is more angular and facing down. 

Dotted structure shows that this forgery was the most likely made with a conventional laser printer.

Forgery B

Star between 9 and 5 is like a rounded stain. L in Yugoslavia is not perpendicular and facing down. Both A in Yugoslavia are without a dot. 

The edges of the overprint are not sharp enough and sometimes color spills out. This is typical for a rubber clichés.

1941 MEĐIMURJE, Forgeries

Forgeries of overprints exist, but they are very amateur and can be easily distinguished from the genuine. Much more dangerous are forgeries of postal items where both, the overprint and the cancellation are genuine, but a postal item as a whole is a fake.

A fragment of a letter, franked with 2 din, cancelled with Čakovec 3, 12.IV.41. Private product / forgery. After the Yugoslav army withdrew and when the post office in Čakovec was closed someone stole and misused the canceller. Hence, all letters postmarked at Čakovec on 12.IV.41 or later are fakes.

Letter, franked with 0,50 din, cancelled with Bjelovar 3, 31.IX.41. Canceller Bjelovar 3 is in the private hands and there is no evidence at all that these stamps have been used in Bjelovar.

In addition, forger used a nonexistent day 31st of September :(.

1945 SPLIT, Censored in transit

Recently I wrote that shipments were usually censored at the place of dispatch and, more rarely, at the place of receipt. Of course, there is also a third option if shipment is censored in transit...

1945 Split local provisional issue, picture postcard sent from Zadar (written 29.V.45) to Split, free of charge as the sender was a military person. Censored in transit with civil censor cancellation No. 13 (Knin).

Philatelic seminar "Domašinec 2017"

Today I spent a nice day in Domašinec where philatelic society "Zrinski" organized the sixth philatelic seminar called "Domašinec 2017".

Nenad Rogina, president of the Croatian Federation of Philatelists, lectures on Međimurje and Prekmurje issues in 1918/1919.

Barac & Pervan Auction

Today I was in Zagreb at the Barac & Pervan auction. For me this is already a traditional December trip to Zagreb, where I cannot only compete for high quality lots, but also meet and discuss with colleagues from all over the Europe. It is always worth to come...

Barac & Pervan auction hall.

1945 ZAGREB, Mussolini street

Letter from Zagreb utility company to the agricultural cooperatives. Non-philatelic usage during the six day period of authorized use (from 25 to 30.VI.1945). 

Letter was sent to the address with the street name devoted to fascist Arnaldo Mussolini the brother of Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Interestingly, the partisans tolerated such street names for almost two months since Zagreb was liberated.

Later, Mussolini street was renamed to Braća Kavurić street, and in 2006 to Hebrangova street.

1945 Zagreb local provisional issue, letter with 80 kn / 2 kn, 27.VI.1945 Zagreb 1 cancellation.

Certificate Zrinjšćak.

OI Dalmatia, Mixed franking

In the initial period of the Italian occupation of Dalmatia, some interesting mixed franking could be found...

Italian occupation od Dalmatia, letter send from Trogir (4.6.41) to Zagreb, franked with 3 din and 30 cent, cancelled with TRAÙ POSTE (DALMAZIA).

1941 Banja Luka, A Mystery of the Position 10

You probably noticed that the "Croatian Philately" stopped publishing in 2016. After one year, a new magazine with a similar name ("Croatian Philatelist") is on the scene. In the first number you will find my short article:

Hrvatski Filatelist No. 1/2017

1941 Banja Luka Local Provisional Issue

A Mystery of the Position 10

English | Croation

OI Montenegro, Early mail

The attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on April 6, 1941. The southwestern part of Montenegro was occupied by the Italian 14th Corps of the 9th Army. The Messina Division took over the Bar (Antivari) on April 16, 1941.

Italian occupation of Montenegro, postcard franked with 80 cent. for air mail, sent from Bar (19.4.41) to Rome, cancelled with "UFFICIO POSTALE MILITARE ??". Note that the postcard was written on April 17, just a day after the Italians took over the Bar. This is an early mail from Italian occupation of Montenegro.

I need some help with identifying a military unit number on the cancellation "UFFICIO POSTALE MILITARE ??". I checked in "La Posta Militare Italiana 1939|1945", Giuseppe Marchese (edition 1991), but without luck. If you have a newest edition or maybe some other sources, please check if you can find out the military unit number. The visible part of the cancellation should be sufficient for the identification...

Click on image to enlarge.

1945 SARAJEVO, Registered mail

Check out this attractive registered postal stationery...

1945 Sarajevo local provisional issue, registered postal stationery, type III, franked with 5 din (1 din prepaid and 4 din for the registration), sent from Mostar (25.VIII.45) to Ljubljana. Surcharged 

with a rarely seen "Prohor Pčinjski" stamps.

Double censorship

Normally, all shipments were censored at departure, but from time to time you can find some that were censored at arrival or they were not censored at all. The rarest are those that have been censored twice.

Registered letter sent from Banja Luka (26.V.1945) to Šibenik, franked with 160 occupational din, cancelled in transit in Prijedor (27.V.1945), first censored at departure (handwritten censor mark on the front side) and secondly at arrival in Šibenik (censor mark no. 6 on the back side).

At departure - handwritten censor mark.

At arrival - censor mark No. 6 - Šibenik.

1944 SENTA, Rubber canceller

Recently I found a Senta letter cancelled with an unusual canceller. At first glance, the cancellation seemed very strange, but then I found exactly the same cancellation on the special commemorative sheet I obtained from the Senta city archive. It is still not clear why this provisional rubber canceller has been used at the beginning of 1945...

1944 Senta provisional issue, letter, properly franked with 30 f, sent from Senta (2.I.1945) to Mol, cancelled with provisional rubber canceller.

Provisional rubber canceller.
POŠTA  /  ___ ★ 194_  /  SENTA 

Before I show that special commemorative sheet with the same rubber cancellation, you need to know that at the end of October 1944, the National Liberation Committee in Senta issued commemorative sheets with Senta provisional stamps (for more see here).

Senta commemorative sheet

At the end of the 1944 or at the beginning of 1945, after the new DFJ stamps arrived, they made new commemorative sheets in such a way that they simply overlay a piece of paper on top of remained sheets, leaving only the upper inscription with a five-pointed star and the blue/red border. Interestingly, this time they used the same canceller as on the above-mentioned letter.

Modified Commemorative sheet. Note how they overlap original content.
(Click on image to enlarge)

The same provisional rubber canceller.

Update: see also 1944 SENTA, Rubber canceller - 2

PhilAdria 18th Stamp auction

After a long time, I finally spent a nice and calm philatelic day. I went to the PhilAdria auction, I bought a few items and had a nice chat with colleagues.

PhilAdria auction hall.

1945 MARIBOR, Ruše cancellation

I found an interesting correspondence which shows the development of the cancellation methods in Ruše immediately after the WWII. Check out the sequence:

The first letter is dated 19.06.1945. A provisional date stamp and a rectangular censor cachet have been used while there is no Ruše cancellation at all.

The second letter is dated 29.06.1945. A provisional date stamp, "RUŠE" cancellation and a round censor cachet have been used.

The third letter is dated 21.07.1945. A new "classic" RUŠE 1 cancellation was used and there is no censor mark (as the censorship stopped after the 02.07.1945).

Note that all three letters share the same cash payment cancellation. First and second letter were franked with 12 pf while the third one was franked in new currency of 2 din.

In the meantime DFJ stamps arrived to Ruše, so the fourth letter, dated 07.08.1945, is the first one  from that correspondence that is franked with a postage stamp.

1945 MOSTAR, Registered letter

Letters of Mostar issue are extremely rare - probably less than ten exist. Luckily I managed to find one nice item...

1945 Mostar local provisional issue, registered letter, franked with 240 kn, sent from Mostar (26.V.45) to Vinkovci (4.VI.45). Military censor cancellation No. 2. Fourth stamp in block of eight with typical error Jugosiavija instead of  Jugoslavija (position 85). Certificate Ercegović.

1941 MEĐIMURJE, Gold medal

I am happy to announce that I got a gold medal for my "1941 Međimurje" exhibit at the specialized one frame exhibition of the Alpe Adria and southeastern Europe countries in Kranj.

Digital version of the exhibit is available here.

"1941 Međimurje" on the exhibition floor.

Manual about the first Croatian stamps

I would like to inform you that Mladen Vilfan just published a manual about the first Croatian postage stamps - issue 29.10.1918. This is not my area, but I can assure you that it is a must-have manual, written in Croatian and English, which brings together all known information as well as a lot of new findings about this issue.

You can order the manual directly from the author: mladfan@hotmail.com.

First Croatian postage stamps - Issue 29.10.1918.

1944 SENTA, “Југосливиjа” overprint error

One of the greatest rarities of all DFJ provisional issues is the overprint error "Југосливиjа" instead of “Југославиjа” that can be found on the nine values of Big Senta. For the "Famous women" and Porto stamps only two of each exist.

1944 Senta local provisional issue, all nine values of Big Senta with "Југосливиjа" error. Great rarity, only this set is known to me.

1945 ZAGREB, Forerunner from Vukovar

The 1945 Zagreb issue stamps were released on June 25th, 1945. Before that only cache payment was possible (however, even after the stamps were issued, most of the post offices outside of Zagreb did not receive them, so the cache only payment continued...).

Forerunner of the 1945 Zagreb provisional issue, letter sent from Vukovar (13.VI.45) to Zaječar Serbia, properly charged of 80 kn in cash (Zagreb tariff), censored by the censor in Vukovar.

Vukovar censor mark.

1945 LJUBLJANA, Telegraph wires

The most attractive typical error of 1945 Ljubljana issue is so-called "telegraph wires" found on the base stamps of 50 cent. Error resembles to telegraph wires and extends over the horizontal strip of five stamps at positions 54-58.

1945 Ljubljana, local provisional issue, 50 cent horizontal strip at positions 54-58, typical error on base stamps known as telegraph wires.

Schematic view of telegraph wires.

Enlarged view, position 57.

1945 MARIBOR, Letter from Ruše

The Maribor provisional issue was issued on 16.06.1945. On the same day, only the post offices Kranj and Maribor received stamps, along with the task of distributing them also to the smaller post offices in the surrounding areas. However, it is known that most of the post offices never received these stamps.

1945 Maribor, local provisional issue, letter, correctly franked with 12 pf, paid in cash, sent from Ruše (29.VI.1945) to Sisak, Croatia. Cancelled with provisional "RUŠE" cancellation. Censored in Maribor.

Provisional "RUŠE" cancellation with date and cash payment cancellations.

Maribor censorship cachet.

1943/44 ŠIBENIK, Article

New Acta Philatelica was published! A high quality magazine with full of interesting articles, including my latest work about the first and second provisional issue of Šibenik 1943/44.

ACTA PHILATELICA NOVA 2016

Croatian philatelic almanac

Independent State of Croatia
First and Second Provisional Issue of Šibenik 1943/44

To order please contact me at alesmarinsek67@gmail.com

1945 SARAJEVO, Military censor mark

Sarajevo stationery postcards were used from Jun 1945 to March 1946. Those from Jun 1945 should have censor marks as the censorship was in effect until July 2nd, 1945.

1945 Sarajevo local provisional issue, stationery postcard type Ia, sent from Bosanska Gradiška (16.VI.1945) to Belgrade. Rare military censor mark.

Two-line Bosanska Gradiška military censor mark

Вој. цензура

Бос. Градишка