The guy on the left on these stamps, beside the Norway #1 stamp (1855), is Vidkun Quisling. He was a hated man in Norway, and he was executed for high treason after World War II, having led a puppet government for Hitler's Third Reich. The majority of Norwegians would never sink so low as to put a Quisling stamp on an envelope if they could avoid it (and licking it to boot!), so it's rare to find these stamps in used conditions. They are much more common in mint, like these. So, if people didn't like to use them for postage, at least the collectors and stamp sellers liked to collect them as historical artefacts. They look very much like stamps issued by the German Reich during the same period.
The brown one has been in my collection for many years, but the blue one is new. So I thought there had to be a blue version of Quisling's head too, but no such stamp was ever issued. I didn't get the point: That they chose the blue color to represent the blue Norway #1 stamp.
As the text on the stamps indicates: They were issued in connection with a meeting of postal administrations in Vienna in 1942. Delegations from several German-friendly or occupied countries attended. It was an administrative move from the Germans to make communication during the war go smoother.
Concerning the 4 skilling Norway #1: It wasn't easy to find a cheap and good version of that stamp, so I had to dig deeper in my pocket that I usually do. Still, a Norwegian ought to have the first Norwegian stamp. It feels good.
I will soon return with more Norwegian stamps on stamps.
Below I present two other versions of the original Quisling stamp (Scott #B27, #B26).
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar