Philately of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes: Victims of War Issue of 1921


30 January 1921. Charity issue for the benefit of the Society of War Invalids.

They were printed in line engraving by American Bank Note Co., New York. Stamps were released on the 30th of January 1921, the day the city of Belgrade received the highest French order of merit – the Legion of Honour.

The printing sheet consisted of 4 panes, each having 100 stamps in a 10 × 10 layout. In the top right corner, there are plate markings F 6502 A1, F 6502 A2, F 6502 A3 and F 6502 A4.

Unsold stamps were used to overprint the provisional issue of 1922/24. The remainder of 1.000.000 sets was sold at an auction in 1930.

Apart from the 20.000.000 regular sets, the central postal depot received from New York an additional 5.000 sets of imperforated and ungummed stamps and 10.000 sets of perforated ungummed sets. On the auction of the 1930, 4.600 sets of the first and the 9.600 sets of the latter were sold.

CIRCULATION AND ESTIMATED SALES
Denomination Regular stamps Imperforate & ungummed Perforated & ungummed Sold Overprinted 1922/24 Donated to charity Sold in 1930
10 + 10 para 20.000.000 5.000 10.000 5.000.000 13.500.000 500.000 1.000.000
15 + 15 para 20.000.000 5.000 10.000 2.721.000 16.279.000 1.000.000
25 + 25 para 20.000.000 5.000 10.000 3.000.000 16.000.000 1.000.000
COINCIDENTAL VARIETIES
25 + 25 para, blue
1 Paper folds during the printing process. Yugoslavia 1921 victims of war postage stamp paper fold error
The back side
2 Paper crease. Yugoslavia War Invalids stamp paper crease
SPECIMEN STAMPS

Cinderella of the Society of Disabled Veterans

On 28 December 1923, 500.000 stamps of 10 + 10 para denomination, were donated to the Central Committee of the Society of Disabled Veterans. The stamps were overprinted with the inscription У.Р.И. U.R.I. in black color (U.R.I. stands for “Udruženje Ratnih Invalida” – Society of Disabled War Veterans).

Upon release, the public was informed that the overprinted stamp could be used on letters but not as a payment of postage fees. These stamps are therefore cinderellas and not postage stamps.

CONSTANT VARIETIES
10 + 10 para
I Yugoslavia 1921 cinderella U.R.I. overprint error A dot after И in У. Р. И. is missing.
Field №: ? Pane: N/A
Other nomenclatures:
Notes:
Value €: 2,25
II Letter И in У. Р. И. damaged at the bottom right.
Field №: ? Pane: N/A
Other nomenclatures:
Notes: Another example (note flaw I above).
Value €: 2,25
III Letter R in U. R. I. is damaged at the bottom right.
Field №: ? Pane: N/A
Other nomenclatures:
Notes: another example.
Value €: 2,25

 

References


Bibliography

  1. Novak, Dragan: Priručnik maraka jugoslovenskih zemalja (1948), Tome 8, Filatelistički savez Hrvatske (Zagreb)
  2. Novak, Dragan: Priručnik maraka jugoslovenskih zemalja (1951), Tome 9, Filatelistički savez Hrvatske (Zagreb)
  3. Katalog poštanskih maraka jugoslovenskih zemalja (1991), Jugomarka (Belgrade), YU ISSN 0351-4447

Contributors
Some of the images on this page were contributed by mag. Boštjan Petauer FRPSL.