My stamps collection: august acquisitions. Austria!

Today I will continue from the place where I left off last time. In August, postal mailings from stamp dealers came to me so often that I did not even have time to unpack and photograph all my new acquisitions, not speaking of sorting them and filling in the album; today I present show the contents of a single purchase, which combined various Austrian stamps (different years) I got from the same dealer.

'Tag Der Briefmarke' in English means simply 'Stamp Day'. The Austrian Austrian Post has a long tradition of issuing a new post-themed stamp every year on Post Day. Of course, not all of them are equally beautiful, but some are simply very, very good - and certainly worth the attention of collectors.

This one is from year 1972, and I have been looking at it for a long time and trying to buy it. A beautiful piece of art, isnt it?My path to it was long and not entirely smooth, and that is why I especially want it. The stamp itself is not very expensive and rare, and costs literally 10-20 cents... I immediately paid for it and bought it as soon as I learned of its existence - BUT soon after the purchase, it turned out that the dealer could not find it in his album... and my order was canceled. Only after several months of searching, I was able to find another seller willing to sell it. The wait for the stamp was extended - and this adds to its value in my eyes.

A very attractive series of stamps from 1916, in low denominations of 2 and 5 hellers. The stamps depict Mercury; the zigzag on the edges of the stamp means that it is "urgent" or special - i.e. accelerated delivery. These stamps predate the advent of airmail (the first airmail stamps appeared in 1918).

But I have been putting off buying the triangular modification of this issue. It is not rare, quite cheap... but most of the lots I have seen offered cancelled stamps. And it was only this dealer that suggested a unique offer - a block of uncanceled stamps in 4 pieces. Such a block was already significantly more expensive. Refreshingly more expensive, if compared with a single cancelled stamp. I was considering it for more than half a year, and finally pressed the 'BUY' button. :) What do you think, looking at the stamps - was it worth it?..

Triangular stamps are not the most common standard, but still there are many of this kind out there - they immediately make s stand out in a row, and decorate / diversify one's album pages in a nice way. I am not very willing to add such stamps to my collection, but in some cases I simply cannot resist. For example, I really liked these two triangular stamps of Fiume. And I dream of buying some airmail stamps of Latvia and Tuva. Sadly they are very expensive for me.

These seven stamps (uncanceled) were the most expensive piece I bought from the dealer (they costed me $20.) In fact, they were the initial reason I made a deal, the rest of the stamps you see above I added to the deal as an extra purchase. The stamps belong to the famous 1910 commemorative series, celebrating the 80th birthday of Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. The stamps were beautifully designed by Koloman Moser (if that name means anything to you), and that alone is a good reason to add them to your collection. An exceptional piece of art!

I still have to collect the rest of this set, which seems an almost impossible task... so we'll round up the talk here - but I'll definitely tell this story in full one day, even if I don't get all the stamps and can't take my own photos.