Oldest German postage stamp comes from Bavaria: “Black One” auctioned for 400,000 euros – Bavaria

It is not known whether the wholesaler Kohn did good business in Wegscheid at the time. However, it is certainly true that the traveling salesman from Munich was supposed to take the route from the east of today’s Passau district, directly on the border with Austria, to Hengersberg. That’s a good 70 kilometers on the motorway, which these days hardly takes more than an hour. Back then, in 1849, such a trip was more complex and so he announced his coming to Josef Salegg in Hengersberg. He ran a department store and Kohn wanted to pay his respects – and probably sell something, possibly fabrics.

That’s how Dieter Michelson, managing partner of the Heinrich Köhler auction house from Wiesbaden, tells it, and he knows this because that very announcement was franked with a so-called black one. This stamp, the oldest from Germany, was auctioned on Friday for 440,000 euros.

The special thing is that the so-called first day cover was stamped on the day the stamp was published, on November 1st, 1849. At that time, Bavaria was the first country in Germany to introduce stamps at the behest of King Maximilian II. They were available for one, three and six cruisers. The three-cross stamps were often used, says Michelson, while the ones were intended for printed matter.

Because the letter with which the traveling salesman announced his arrival in Hengersberg was also a pre-written one. It was customary for such representatives to announce their arrival from one station to the next, which is why the letters were all the same.

The fact that Josef Salegg’s name was misspelled on the letter is a small anecdote, but overall the first day cover is “the most important document in German philately because it marks the beginning of the stamp era in Germany,” according to the auction house . It is not known who purchased the Black One; experienced collectors from all over the world and new interested parties took part. There were around 50 bidders in the auction house, and hundreds bid online and on the phone. The starting bid was 250,000 euros.

The world’s oldest postage stamp is the British “One Penny Black”, which was launched nine years before the “Black One”.

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