More Specialized Areas for Austria and German Collecting

Most stamp collectors start their collections of the German and Austrian areas using either Scott or Michel catalogs and collect the major catalog numbered issues. As their collections advance they often expand what they collect to include the many minor varieties of stamps listed in the Michel catalogs. These varieties include color shade varieties, perforation varieties, and proofs. Given the huge number and expense of these issues long time collectors often turn to assembling different collections from Austria and Germany. Here are a few:

Cancel collections. The most popular cancel collections are of the early Austria issues of the 19th century. There are several thousand major cancel varieties that can be assembled from these issues and most are very inexpensive when collected on the more common stamps from that period. Cancels can be assembled by town, and/or by town and cancel design. There are several catalogs covering these issues. Edwin Mueller’s “Handbook of Austria and Lombardy-Venetia Cancellations on the Postage Stamp Issues of 1850...1864" published in1961 is considered to be the definitive cancel catalog. It can be found in German and in English.

Germany colony cancels is also a very popular area for collectors - although there are several hundred different cancels it is possible to put together a pretty complete collection of readable town cancels for the offices and colonies. There are several good catalogs listing and pricing these cancels. The definitive catalog is by Albert Freidemann, “The Stamps and Cancels of the German Colonies and the German Post Offices Abroad.”

Other popular cancel collections include the cancels of specific German states, slogan cancels of WWII, and special cancels of WWII.

Austria Post cards/postal stationery. There were many different forms of postal stationery used since the first postal issues of 1850 - post cards, money orders, pre-franked envelopes, telegrams, letter cards, etc. These items are listed in the Michel Austria Specialized catalog and the Stanley Gibbons catalogs. Most postal stationery items are not expensive but are very attractive items.

Handoverprint Stamps of Post WWII .

Stamps with Hitler depicted.

Germania Stamps.

Germany Inflation covers