I read the comments at the end of Peter Frick's item in the April 2005 Journal, pages 20-21 and am sharing with members the information I have discovered about the >Personal stamps. Having bought some, I wanted to know more about these stamps and approached both the Austrian Postal Authority (Herr Erich Haas) and looked at their web site www.meine-marke.at
A number of countries, including Great Britain, have produced some form of label attached to the normal postage stamp to make them >personal to the user but the label has had no postal significance. The Austrian Postal Authority has decided that it would be different and print >personal stamps that will be accepted for postal use provided they conform to certain conditions, and all must be printed by the State Printing Works (who produce the conventional issues). So that everyone might recognize the personal stamps Post.at issued two, one in each format, on 5 December 2003 as part of the 2003 issuing program.
Personalized stamps may only be ordered by electronic means and are printed in either horizontal or vertical formats. The overall size of each stamp is 42x35 or 35x42 mm, with a picture size of 34x21 or 27x29mm and they are printed in sheets of 20 either 5x4 or 4x5. The white margin around the stamps is the size of a stamp and contains additional wording. Above the first and last stamp is the Post.at logo and between these the title of the stamp whilst at the bottom there is the logo of the State Printing Works and the date of printing. Finally in small figures at the extreme bottom left is the number of the issue. The picture is contained within a frame on which the name Osterreich and value 0.55 are printed. This frame is printed in a security color (currently yellow) similar to that used for bank notes and contains a special ingredient to produce their security system. I understand that there is some control over the picture content of the stamps and about 200 designs have been rejected because of problems including about ten with Nazi propaganda motifs, 150 with pornographic content and about 50 with respect to legal aspects including copyright of the picture, In this last respect I was shown two postcards one of which would be the basis of the proposed design for a stamp to mark 100 years of the Stubaital railway but the chosen design was refused for just this reason C a copy of the stamp as finally issued is shown. Initially the print run was a minimum of 500 sheets but this requirement has been reduced and is now 5 sheets of 20 stamps or 100 items in total. The cost of having the stamps printed depends on the number of sheets ordered but as previously stated each stamp has a face value of 55 euro cents and it is for this reason that they are sold for more than their face value.
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Personal stamps are ordered by email and there is a minimum quality resolution for the picture, production usually taking about 4 weeks. The printed stamps are sent to the person ordering them in Austria who can then use them as and when they wish so there is normally no >First Day. However some issues are ordered for a purpose, special event, birthday or anniversary for example, and can then have a recognized >Day of issue. As the stamps are sent to individuals they are rarely available from a post office with the exception again if they are ordered for a special event where the organizers arrange for a Special cancellation and attendance by the post office - see the Teifs Schliecherlaufen Card.
The first Personal stamp was printed in September 2003 and honored Manfred Paula, the former General Manager of the State Printing Works in Vienna. The print run was 500 or 600 and if you can find this item on Ebay or another auction site expect to pay in excess of 100 Euro for it. The first generally available personal stamp was issued in November 2003 had a print run of 20,000 and was sold at the >Post Office in the Clouds at the Vienna Town Hall Christkindl Market where it cost Euro 1.50. This was followed by Kosel the philatelic dealer with 10,000 in each format, Richard Zimmerl editor of >Die Briefmarke, (20,000) Christine Steyrer publisher of Netto catalogues, (10,000 in each format), The Favoriten Stamp Club in Vienna, SOS Kinderdorf, 100 years of powered flight and Postbus AG completed the 2003 issues. By the end of 2004 approximately 2,700 orders had been received for personal stamps with about 140,000 sheets (2,800,000 stamps) printed or the equivalent of four of Post.ats special issues. A further development has been the production of a sheetlet of stamps either with several designs repeated throughout the sheet or, as with that marking 150 years of the police in Austria, 20 different pictures. Could it be that all 20 will also appear in separate sheets?
Many people order a personal stamp for a reason but some firms use them as a form of advertising, Joh. Schlosser marked the 20th anniversary of his auction house with a series of stamps showing a stamp from each of the first five Austrian issues. Other stamps have been reproduced on personal stamps. Any member of the AUSPS who is also a member of the British Austrian Philatelic Society will have received a letter earlier this year advertising their recently published book on the Vienna Pneumatic Post. Through an agent in Austria, the APS (GB) obtained a personal stamp showing a pneumatic envelope from 1880 with a border in the color adopted for pneumatic post items in 1908. This was affixed to the letters that then had to be returned to a contact in Austria for posting.
The first personal stamp must have been a success since >The Post Office in the Clouds obtained a different one for 2004. Assuming that each order is numbered consecutively there are now over 5,000 issues C the June 2005 issue of >Die Briefmarke illustrates number 8005191 (all start with 800) showing the >Team at Postamtes Hartberg.
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The first 64 personal stamps were listed in the Austria Netto Specialized Catalogue 2004/05 but as I have not seen the 2005/06 edition I cannot say if they are still listing all or some of these stamps. (They are - ed.) When I was in Vienna in December 2004 a catalogue of personal stamps was available but I do not have any more details. The religious theme is prevalent among personalized stamps.
In answer to the question of how one gets examples of personal stamps, the best source I can offer is through the Ebay auction site. Looking at Ebay.de recently I noticed a section under Austria for >Personalmarke.The downside is that many Austrian sellers do not accept PayPal so payment can cause difficulties and become expensive in exchange charges. However not all sellers use this site and I have found a number when visiting other pages or favorite vendors.
In order to ensure that the details given were generally correct, I sent the draft of this article to Herr Haas at Postat and in addition to correcting a couple of points he has also given some additional information regarding changes proposed for 2006. In addition to the yellow frame, they will be introducing a blue version which will have the same security levels as now. There will also be the option to have your stamp with any face value between Euro 0.55 to Euro 99.99 although it is not expected that anyone will want the higher values. The idea here is that if you wish to have a stamp to mark your birthday it can have a Euro 0.65 or Euro 65.00 face value. I assume that the cost will vary according to the face value but this is not mentioned. Post.at also plans for the near future an Internet page listing the personal stamps. To quote Herr Haas, Abecause we saw that - surprisingly for us - these stamps begin to be a special collectors field.@
