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150th Anniversary of the First Stamp
Put into Circulation
on the Postal Service Territory of Slovakia
Catalogue Number:  209
Stamp Design:  Dušan Kállay
Stamp Engraving:  Martin Činovský
Date of Issue:  June 1, 2000
Printing:  Postal Stationery Printing House, Prague, Czech Republic
Print Technology:  Rotary-recess printing combined with recess printing
Size of Impression:  23.0 mm x 40.0 mm
Print Run:  1,000,000
FDC Design:  Dušan Kállay
FDC Engraving:  Arnold Feke
Cancellation Design:  Dušan Kállay
FDC Printing:  Postal Stationery Printing House, Prague, Czech Republic
FDC Print Technology:  Recess printing from flat plates
FDC Print Run:  10,000

It has been already 150 years since the first postage stamps, valid on the territory of Slovakia, have been printed. These were then the postage stamps of the Austrian Empire. England is the country, where the first postage stamp in the world has been published on 6th May 1840. In the next decade there came the postage stamps of other 9 postal services have been printed, among which, there were also the postage stamps of the Austrian Empire printed on the 1st June 1850. At that time Slovakia was one of the countries under the Habsburg rule and as part of Austria it had not its own postage stamps.

The motive of the first issue of the postage stamps valid on the Slovak territory was the Emperor's crown and on both of its sides there was the inscription "K. K. POST -STEMPEL". In the lower part of the stamps there is a label with the value data. The first printed issue contained 5 postage stamps with the nominal values 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9 KREUZER (local currency). The postage stamps do not bear the name of the country, their identification mark is the Habsburg Emperor's and King's crown.

After the Austrian-Hungarian split in 1867 the Hungarian postal service wanted to publish its own postage stamps, but it was then not technically ready for printing. Therefore the new issue of 1867 was printed by the Austrian authorities and the postage stamps were valid in both parts of the monarchy. The first stamps printed in Hungary were issued on the 1st May 1871.

The first Czecho-Slovak stamps were printed on the 18th December 1918, when the title "Slovakia" appeared for first time ever on the state duty stamp in the designation "Pošta Česko-Slovenská".

The first Slovak stamps were published on the 1st January 1993, which is the date of establishement of the Slovak republic.

FDC
Contents 1993-2000
Year 2000
Copyright ©2000 askom