Description: Free City of Danzig Freie Stadt Danzig - Wolne Miasto Gdańsk The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and nearly 200 towns and villages in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 in accordance with the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I.31st January 1921 Stamp marking the proclamation of the Free City of Danzig (which occurred on 15th November 1920). It depicts a cog, which is an armed merchant ship. CORK CANCEL - KORKSTEMPEL This example has, in addition to the usual cancellation, another cancel in the form of a large asterisk. This is known as a Korkstempel. It came about through a desire by the postal authorities to make high denomination stamps less attractive to collectors. Why? Because most high denomination stamps were used for parcels, and were attached to a card rather than to the parcel directly. Loads of the cards were pinched by people wanting to sell the stamps to collectors. Therefore means were sought to discourage this. On 18th October 1920 the post office ordered a trial of various methods of defacing the stamps. After 3 weeks they settled on the Korkstempel method.The strategy worked in that up to 1995 stamps with the Korkstempel were only valued at a maximum of two thirds of a non-Korkstempel used stamp. Since then they have greatly appreciated in value, partly because Korkstempel collection became a specialised area of philately, and - more importantly - if a stamp has a Korkstempel it is a guarantee that it has been postally used, and cannot be a cancelled-to-order stamp, which are worth only a fraction of postally-used. Michel Catalogue Number: 58; catalogue value €9.00 ($14.00 approx.) Stamp Number DA 52Yvert et Tellier DA 50Stanley Gibbons DA 47AFA number DA 56Polish Stamps Catalog (Fischer) DA 50 1921, 31. Jan. Proklamation des Staates Freie Stadt Danzig (15.11.1920)
Price: 5.95 AUD
Location: Emerald, Victoria
End Time: 2024-02-01T23:02:03.000Z
Shipping Cost: 3.09 AUD
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Item Specifics
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
Returns Accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Region: Danzig
Type: Postage
Year of Issue: 1921
Quality: Used
Region of Origin: Europe
