Free Manual

In recent years, I have written various articles about local issues of the Independent State of Croatia. Most of them were published in Acta Philatelica Nova, a yearbook that, by the way, I warmly recommend to anyone collecting stamps and postal history on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. I have received positive responses and many requests to prepare and publish a manual. Therefore, I finally decided to bring things together, unify and supplement them accordingly. The result is a manual that I hope will contribute to the popularisation of these issues and maybe to philately in general.

The Philatelic Manual

Local Issues of Independent State of Croatia

Međimurje • Banja Luka • Šibenik I & II • Dalmatia

Aleš Marinšek
2020

1945 Transadriatic mail to Australia

Following Allied intervention across the Adriatic into the Balkans in late 1944 and early 1945, postal services were disrupted and fell into the control of Allied Military Liaison Headquarters, part of the Middle East Command. In November 1944, the Controller of Civil Posts BMA Dodecanese reported that arrangements had been made in the Balkans for urgent civilians posts to be accepted for disposal through the Director Middle East Censorship (part of the British MEF) and Cairo, then the Egyptian Postal Services. Only a few examples of such mail are known.

Letter sent from Vrgorac Croatia to Chermside Queensland Australia (addressed Ducensland), most likely in early 1945. The letter was censored five times: 1) by a military censor in Vrgorac, 2) by a civil censor in Makarska, 3) by Allied Transadriatic Censorship in south Italy, 4) by Egyptian M63 and 5) by Australian civilian censors. A scarce example of such mail.

The violet cachet of Makarska censor (No. 18) hiding behind the "Examined by Allied / Transadriatic Censorship" label.

1941 MEĐIMURJE, "Hd" error on 0.25 Din

"Hrvatska država" error (also known as "Hd" error) is scarce at 0.25 Din. There are only a few examples identified, mostly as singles... 

1941 Međimurje local issue, 0.25 Din block of four from positions 1-2/6-7. Upper stamps with typical error "Hrvatska država" instead of "Država Hrvatska". This is the largest multiple of 0.25 Din with "Hrvatska država" error known to me.

Palermo Court Prison

So far, I have not found any relevant information about the Palermo Court Prison. Concluding from the stationery below, this prison also served as a transit point before being transferred to Ustica concentration camp...

Stationery, written in Palermo Court Prison (15.III.42), censored by prison censor (17.MAR.42) and sent through Palermo Ferrovia (18.III.42) to Split. From the message: "... I am in the transit for the Ustica concentration camp ...".

1945 POW Allied Censorship

I know that circular censure cachet "MILITARY CENSORSHIP / No. / CIVIL MAILS" was used by Allied in south Italy in 1944 and 1945. However, I do not know if the same type of cachet has been used elsewhere...

Swiss Red Cross POW stationery sent from Geneva (12th June 1945) to Belgrade via Naples, censored by Allied Censorship No. 0146 in Naples and Yugoslav military censor in Belgrade.