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Telegraph stamps of the World Click here for a site-map.

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I have brought these prices up to date and added currency selection.   I have added some items using 'RH' numbers (Revised Hiscocks) to avoid conflicts. CheckList         Setup

Contributors:   - Spink and Son. Joe - Dr Joe on Ebay JT - Jeff Turnbull. RL - Rolf Lamprecht.

 

AUSTRIA.

Steve Hiscocks wrote:
The 'Government' telegraph stamps of Austria closely parallel those of Hungary (qv), as one might expect, in that they were introduced in 1873
(July), changed from lithographed to engraved versions of essentially the same design in 1874, and went out of use on 1 April 1879. They were,
however, preceded by those of a private company, Wiener Privat-Telegrafen-Gesellschaft (Vienna Private Telegraph Co.), which issued stamps
from 1870 until the company was (presumably) nationalized in 1873.
The WPTG stamps were in two halves, the lower being a receipt, and were presumably used rather as those of India, Uganda, Sudan, Ceylon, etc., in
which both the sender and the company retained evidence of payment. Lower halves are sometimes seen and it was presumably that which was
retained by the customer (unlike most countries where it was the top half). The vast majority of specimens found today have a black line printed or
ruled in ink across the upper half. These are remainders which were sold off after the company ceased to operate. These stamps are listed mint,
cancelled and used (bottom half).

The 'Government' stamps present the problem of multiple and variable perforations familiar to anyone who has ever tried to make sense of the
Austrian fiscal stamps of the period. Morley lists dozens of varieties while L. W. Fulcher and Dr Kalckhoff, through Morley's Philatelic Journal of August
1900, add more. Dr Kalckhoff reported however that it was unrealistic to distinguish between say 9 and 9½ or 10, 10½ and 11 since perforations
varied such as to give these within a single line across or down a sheet. I have not myself been able to examine anything like the quantity studied by
Dr Kalckhoff (especially in sheet form) and have adopted his practice of distinguishing 9½ (i.e. 9 to 9½), 10½ (i.e. 10 to 11), 12, 13 and
compounds of these. It is said to be possible to distinguish three different machines in the 10–11 range by hole characteristics but I am not at this
stage able to advise in detail. For some obscure reason large numbers of these stamps were overprinted 'Specimen' and these seem in fact to be
more common than ordinary mint.

My note:
According to John Barefoot, these were actually Typographed, not Lithographed.

1870 Private Telegraph stamps - Wiener Privat-Telegrafen-Gesellschaft. White wove paper without watermark. Imperf.

10kr. Remainder - H1a.	20kr. - H2.	40kr. Remainder - H3a.

80kr. Remainder - H4a.	1Fl.20kr Remainder - H5a.

I would like to be able to illustrate a used example, but I have not seen any. Can anyone provide a scan ?

Government Telegraph Stamps.

There are differences in the background of the value tablets.

Hiscocks Type 3	Hiscocks Type 2

Line-engraved Type   Interestingly there are differences between examples. The cross-hatch pattern is indicative of the later series, but may not be apparent in more heavilly inked examples.

1873 (July). Franz-Josef I. Typographed on white wove paper without watermark. Various perfs. as indicated.
Beware, examples of the later (cheap) type are often sold as the earlier type. This is in part due to confusion of terminology.
The first series were printed by Typography, otherwise known as letterpress (buchdruck in German) or surface printing. The ink comes from the high points on the plate.
The initial preparation involves engraving a die, rather than Lithography that does not. These are described as lithographed in some catalogues (e.g. Yvert et Tellier).
I have put together a page explaining the differences of the printing techniques.

Hiscocks H6	Hiscocks H7	Hiscocks H15a specimen,  for comparison	Hiscocks H8

Hiscocks H10a	Hiscocks H12	Hiscocks H13b	Hiscocks H14

Images of H7 and H13b are courtesy of Les and Paul Bottomley. H14 is courtesy of Rolf Lamprecht.

The perforations on these stamps are very erratic and Hiscocks gave 'categories' of perforation rather than precise perforation.
Specimens seem more common than ordinary mint.

Hiscocks added the following note:

1874-1876 As above (type 2 only) but line-engraved (intaglio). Various perforations as indicated.
These are usually described as simple 'engraved', since the first series were initially described as 'Litho.' and 'engraved' would distinguish them.
It is now known that the first series was in fact typographed, which also involves engraving a die, so 'line-engraved' would be a better description.
The ink on the stamps come from ink held in the grooves in the printing plate. This makes fine detail more visible, though is not good for lage areas of colour.
This explains the cross-hatching behind the values, though I'm puzzled why it was not simply done on the master die.
I do not know how many stamps were in a sheet, and I do not recall seeing blocks of these, though individual stamps are common.
The Michel catalogue, whilst getting the first series correct, lists this series as Lithographed, which is plain wrong.

Hiscocks H15b   Perf. 12	Hiscocks H16b   Perf. 11¾	Hiscocks H17a   Perf. 10½	Hiscocks H18b   Perf. 12 with typical cancel.

Hiscocks H19   Perf. 9½ x 9¼	Hiscocks H20c   Perf. 12¾	Hiscocks H21a   Perf. 10½	Hiscocks H22   Perf. 10½ x 10¾	Hiscocks H22 used   Perf. 10½ x 10¾ courtesy of Rolf Lambrecht.

Hiscocks added the following 4 notes:

My note: Used prices are for handstamp cancels. Half price for pen cancelled.

Telegraph and Telephone cancels on postage stamps.
Images mostly provided by Rolf Lamprecht.

Used in Brünn (Brno, now Czech Republic)	Vienna Telephone Central, 1897	Vienna Telegraph Central, 1901	Vienna Telegraph Central, 1902

Used in "Prag Altstadt" (Prague Old Town)	Vienna Telephone Central, 1899	Vienna Telegraph Central, 1887	Vienna Telegraph Central, 1889

Telegraph cancel on postage stamp (1890).

This one (courtesy of Jeff Turnbull) has a perfin of Ing. Eisler Food products, Vienna.

Telephone Cards.

According to John Barefoot, these are listed in postal stationery catalogues such as Michel.
Not having that, I will list what I know about by whatever criteria seems appropriate.

Posts & Telegraph Institution (Anstalt).

(240 dpi)

1885   Imperf. Plain white or coloured back. This is a 5 minute card for use on the line between Vienna and Brünn(Brno), Moravia (now Czech Republic).


Type 1,   RH1  "Sprechkarte zur telephonischen Correspondenz zwischen ..."  -  Courtesy of Dr Joe on ebay.

1886   Similar to above, but wording changed, ("Sprechen" for "Correspondenz")


Type 2,   RH2  "Sprechkarte zum telephonischen Sprechen zwischen ..."  -  From RL.

Posts & Telegraph Administration (Verwaltung).

1888   Similar to above, but now just Karte - 5 Minutes on Local Line


Type 3,   RH3  "Karte zum telephonischen Sprechen im Localverkehr ..."  -  From RL.

1888   Imperf. Plain colored backs. These are 5 minute 'interurbanen' (interurban) line (between Vienna and Budapest) cards.
According to Wikipedia this line was "completed by 1890, with all major cities being connected during the next three years".



Type 4,   RH4, 5 & 6   -  Courtesy of Dr Joe on ebay. This shows three different ways that these were cancelled
The first is dated 29/1/89, the last looks like 14/12/89.
I'm puzzled why these have different values if they are all for 5 minutes on the inter-urban line and all used about the same time.
They were also all used in Vienna. Presumably the rate was determined by the distance on the line.

The image below shows what is cut off in use:

Image courtesy of Spink and Son.

1890 ?   Imperf. This card for work on the inter-urban line.
(I am unsure of the translation of Werkehre.)


Type 5,   RH7  Werkehre without time limit.

1888   Similar to above, but bi-lingual version, German and Czech.
Probably for sale in Brno (Brünn).


Type 6,   RH8  "Karte / Lístek"  -  From RL.

1890 ?   Imperf. Plain colored back. This card for urgent work on the inter-urban line.
(I am unsure of the translation of Werkehre.)


Type 7,   RH9 with dated back - Courtesy of Dr Joe on ebay.

I have seen a bi-lingual version of this also, but do not have an image that I can use. I will reserve a space for this as Type 8.

1905   New design, unfranked, no time limit - Inter-Urban Line.


Type 9,   RH11  No printed franking, can be used for any time/distance.
At the bottom it says Issue October 1905, but this was used in 1916.  -  From RL.

1906 ?   New design - Local Line.


Type 10,   RH12  "20h Sprechkarte Lokalverkehr "  -  From RL.

1908 ?   New design - Local Line.


Type 11,   RH13   "20h Karte Lokalverkehr "  -  From RL.

Small Format.

This is a 3 minute local for Vienna

Type 12,   RH14 (half size) - Courtesy of Spink and Son. John Barefoot dates this at 1894 and the one below at 1900.


Type 12,   RH15 - From RL

1908 ?   New design.


Type 13,   RH16  "20h Karte Lokalverkehr "  -  From RL.

3. Railway.

Issued around 1900 by the K. K. St. B. State Railway.
Thin hard Pelure ('onionskin') paper. No watermark. Perf. 12½.

Type 14,   RH17 - Taken from page 12 of Hiscocks' book.

Hiscocks added the following note:

Pneumatic Post.

Like in Paris, though not actually sent by telegraph, these were clearly administered by the Telegraph department.
It is likely that the Pneumatic system was used to expedite delivery of telegrams.

The system in Vienna began operations on March 19th 1875, initially with only 10 offices (within the central region.
The compressors and air storagetanks were in the Laurenzerbuilding at the "Fleischmarkt" (Meat Market).

This half sized image (of front and back) shows an item from 1879 (I have a similar one dated 1876).


A 5kr printed stamp with a Pneumatic Station cancel from Vienna meat market.
Instructions for using, printed on the back.

This half sized image shows an interesting item.

This is folded in half, but there is nothing printed on the parts that you cannot see.
the 20 kr stamp is normal size and printed directly onto the stationery.

This half sized image shows a Correspondence Card.

This has a plain back with only the written correspondence which is dated 26/4.85. On the left is a list of the Offices and areas served by them.
The address on the front identifies the office to which it should be sent. It has a 10 kr impressed stamp.

This half sized image shows the front and back of a letter.
 
This letter has a similar list of Offices on the flap of the back. The front has a 20 kr impressed stamp, and is dated 5/3/85.

Telegram Seals.

A range of different seals were used on Austrian telegrams at different times.

This half sized image shows a sample of them.

Steve Hiscocks made a start on cataloguing seals of the world in a book he published in 2007.
It was his hope to update it later, but unfortunately that was not to be.
His original book can be viewed at Telegraph Seals: A World Catalogue. There are links from the pages to my updates.

Alternatively you can view the latest page for Austria.

Comments, criticisms, information or suggestions are always welcome.

Contact:    

Please include the word 'Telegraphs' in the subject.

Last updated 23rd. March 2020

©Copyright Steve Panting 2012/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20 except where stated.
Permission is hereby granted to copy material for which the copyright is owned by myself, on condition that any data is not altered and this website is given credit.