Warsaw Postal Administration November 1918 to June 1919: The Philatelic Exhibit

Some exhibitors have amazing exhibiting skills and concomitant exhibiting successes. Jim Mazepa is one of these gifted exhibitors. This exhibit was awarded the Polumus’ Society’s (the Society of Polish Philately) Grand Award.When Poland declared independence on November 11, 1918, the country was divided into various administrations based on the territories occupied by Germany and Austria. The Warsaw Administration was the largest and centered in the capital of the country. To continue the postal service in the Warsaw Administration, the authorities first provisionally used the German occupation stamps, and then overprinted into Polish stamps two German issues.This exhibit documents the beginnings of the Polish Post in the newly formed country of Poland by an examination of Poland’s first stamps and their use. The first issue of stamps made by the Warsaw Post Office was to be used only in their Administration. They were used from November 17, 1918, until supplies were exhausted sometime in June 1919, a short seven-month period. The issues shown are the first Polish stamps.This exhibit has two chapters, Chapter One, first part, for the unoverprinted German stamps provisionally used and, second part, the First Warsaw Provisional Stamp Issue. Chapter Two follows with the Second Warsaw Provisional stamp Issue. The chapters are organized by value as noted in the upper left of the page and the significance of the page of the upper right.Essays for the First Warsaw Issue which are shown. The Second Warsaw Issue has only trial (called proofs in the Polish catalog) overprints of the spacing of lines on stamps. All are shown. The Polish Post overprinted what was on hand and the values seldom corresponded to an existing rate. Thus, single uses for a rate are not common and impossible for most of the stamps. The stamps are analyzed and then followed by their postal use.These issues rate very high in importance because they are the FIRST issue of a country and issued in the capital of the country. These issues were only in use for barely seven months. These eight frames represent one of the most comprehensive showings of these provisionals ever put together.An in-depth knowledge is shown for each value including errors or varieties not in the catalog. All classes of mail are shown, all existing postal rates, and military use.After being under the yoke of oppressors for 125 years, the public wanted souvenirs of the new country and bought out the supply in many post offices. During World War II, many important collections of this issue were lost. The survival rate has been estimated at +/- 10%. Genuine commercially-used material is very, very difficult. Stamps with a catalog value of $1.00 on a commercial letter can now bring up to $1000.00. Over 100 are shown. Parcel Post Cards and Postal Money Cards were kept by the post office and destroyed. Perhaps between 15 and 20 have survived. Seven are shown. Value letters, akin to insured mail, are extremely difficult, and eight examples are shown. One of two recorded examples of a registered express letter is shown (40f section). Six newspaper wrappers are known from the First issue – two are shown. Three of the five newspaper wrappers of the Second Issue are shown. First Day of use for both issues is shown. The gems of the First and Second Warsaw issues are provisional cancellations. Many offices refused to use the German postmarks and made their own provisional cancellations. Shown are 42 off-cover examples and 47 covers. This is one of the largest collections of provisional cancellations.This exhibit is a result of over 30 years of searching and accumulating this material. It is one of the finest collections/exhibits of the Warsaw Provisionals ever put together. Read more