Communal Revenues from 71 Luxembourg towns UPDATED!

Vianden

Junglinster

Kayl

Boevange-sur-Attert

Update 2016!  The communale revenues now have their own blog - enjoy viewing revenues from more than 100 Luxembourg communes, past and present:

www.luxcommunalrevenuestamps.blogspot.com

At www.luxrevenuephilately.blogspot.com (under the “Communal Revenues” post), I’ve posted images of communal revenue stamps from 71 Luxembourg towns, including uses on documents.

These much neglected pictorials and key types exhibit a diverse range of artistic beauty.  They also offer unparalleled challenges for the philatelist who enjoys doing original research about stamps that are scarce but not excessively expensive.

Here is a list of the communes (I’d welcome scans of those in your collections to add to the website - send them to Arsdorf@gmail.com)  I’ll be adding more in the future Many more have been added at the new communal revenue blog:

Arsdorf

Bascharage

Beaufort

Beckerich

Bertrange

Bettembourg

Bigonville

Bissen

Boevange-sur-Attern

Boulaide

Bourscheid

Bumerange

Contern

Diekirch

Differdange

Dippach

Dudelange

Echternach

Ell

Esch-sur-Alzette

Esch-sur-Sûre

Ettelbrück

Feulen

Fishbach-Mersch

Folchette

Garnich

Goesdorf

Grevenmacher

Grosbous

Heiderscheid

Hesperange

Hosingen

Junglinster

Kayl

Kehlen

Larochette

Lenningen

Lintgen

Lorentzweiler

Luxembourg-Ville

Mamer

Mersch

Mondercange

Munshausen

Nommern

Perlé

Pétange

Rambrouch

Reckange/Mess

Rédange-sur-Attert

Reisdorf

Roeser

Rosport

Rumelange

Saeul

Sanem

Schieren

Schifflange

Steinfort

Strassen

Troisvierges

Useldange

Vianden

Wahl

Walferdange

Weiler-la-Tour

Weiswampach

Wiltz

Wincrange

Wormeldange

My new website for communal revenues lists ALL of the Luxembourg communes, past and present.  Take a look!

Belgo-Luxembourgeoise License Revenues

 

Luxembourg revenue philately – little appreciated by most Luxembourg aficionados – remains a fertile ground for original research and new discoveries.  Like postage stamps,  Luxembourg revenues paid government fees.  They are undeserving of the philatelic discrimination they suffer!  I’ve listed a few at www.luxrevenuephilately.com, but there are many more to be added to that site.

For example, here you see the Belgo-Luxembourgeoise license revenue stamps, which were used jointly by Belgium and Luxembourg to pay import permit charges. 

Type 1

5F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSCHE

COMMISSIE

Denominated ‘Fr-‘

Type 2

BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSCHE

COMMISSIE

Denominated ‘Frs B.‘

Type 3

10F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSE

COMMISSIE

Denominated ‘Frs B.‘ 

Cancelled:  Office Central des Contingents & Licenses, 17 December 1974.

 

20F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSE

COMMISSIE

Type 4

2.50F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSCHE
VERREKEMINGSDIENST BRUSSEL
(OBLC logo design)

 

John Barefoot’s Benelux Revenues [2nd ed.], lists only four of the Belgium & Luxembourg License revenues. 

• My Type 1 5-franc shown here (denominated simply in francs rather than Belgian francs) is unlisted in Barefoot. 
• My Type 2 10-franc with spelling LUXEMBURGSCHE is the only denomination Barefoot lists with this spelling. 
• Barefoot lists 5F, 10F and 20F Type 3 denominations with the spelling LUXEMBURGSE. 
• My Type 4 design is unlisted.

You can help by sharing your research.  I would like to know:

• What stamps were issued? When? In what format?
• Who printed the stamps?
• What quantities were printed?
• What were the import license tax rates? 
• What are the pertinent laws and regulations?
• On what documents were the stamps used?
• Why are some denominated in francs; others in Belgian francs?
• Has the use of licenses revenues been discontinued (if so, when)?
• What is known about the Commission Belgo-Luxembourgeoise?

You can be the first to do the research and publish your findings, if you like, as a guest blogger on this website!   

Failed Frugality — A taxed letter from Boulaide in 1921

 

James Newcomer writes that “[i]n the modern world of 1919-1920 political Luxembourg came of age.”[1] Amidst the economic uncertainty of the postwar years, the Grand Duchy’s economic orientation toward Germany ended. The country’s economic union with Belgium – the L’union économique belgo-luxembourgeoise (U.E.B.L.) — was negotiated in 1921, taking effect the next year. And about this time, the 15c domestic letter rate was increased to 25c, effective April 1, 1921.  Perhaps this context helps explain the cover shown here.

The Grand Duke Adolphe definitives were demonetized on
January 1, 1909. But here a frugal Luxembourger from Boulaide uses the 5c and 10c denominations in combination with the then- current 10c Marie Adélaïde definitive to pay the new 25c domestic 20g letter rate. The letter was posted July 21, 1921, to Buchholtz (post: Grevenmacher).

Ah, but the attempt to save 15 centimes by using the long-invalidated stamps failed. A postal clerk has marked off the Adolphe definitives, showing with a ‘0’ that they no longer have any postal value. At Grevenmacher the next day a strip of three 10c postage due stamps is used to pay the 15c deficiency, doubled of course to impose a fiscal penalty on the unlucky recipient.

[1] The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg:  The Evolution of Nationhood 963 A.D. to 1983 (University Press of America, 1984), p. 238.

Privately printed registry label used in 1886

 

 

Ant. Berger's privately printed registry label in red anticipates those that Luxembourg used in the 1930s.  Here we see it used on  a registered cover from Luxembourg-Ville, May 30, 1886, to the Royal Irish Rifles Quartermaster at New Barracks, Gosport, England. 

The oval transit marking on the front is the London registry cancel of May 31, 1886.  On the back is the Luxembourg-Gare, May 30, 1886 transit, and the Gosport, England receiver dated June 1, 1886.  A p. 12x12½ 50-centime Allegory pays 25c UPU postage for this 13-gram letter and the 25c registry fee.  The red wax seal is still nicely intact.

Ant. Berger was, I think, a dealer or collector.  I can't recall having seen the privately printed registry label before.  This cover turned up at the FIP Show in Lisbon last year.  It's a compelling registered cover in all aspects.  It would have been a shame to leave it in the dealer's stock!

Absender Grossherzogin d'Luxemburg in 1916

Mourning Cover in the Hand of
G.D. Marie-Adélaïde

Who was Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde mourning when she posted this cover from Schloss Berg at Colmar-Berg on December 4, 1916,  to the Baroness Ritter in Munich, Germany?  Perhaps I'll find the answer in Edith O'Shaughnessy's detailed biography of the Grand Duchess, or maybe a reader of this blog will offer a suggestion.

Marie-Adélaïde's distinctive handwriting sometimes perplexed postal clerks.  Here someone, after deciphering the cover's destination, has written München in colored pencil across the front with strong underscoring!

Update

Indeed, Edith O'Shaughnessy, in her fine biography, Marie Adelaide: Grand Duchess of Luxemburg Duchess of Nassau (1921: Harrison Smith, New York), tells us that it was Marie-Adélaïde's paternal grandmother, Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau, for whom Marie-Adélaïde was in mourning when she posted this cover (pp. 139-140).  She writes:

Towards the end of October, 1916, Marie Adelaide left her Duchy for the first time since the outbreak of the war.  It was to go to Königstein, near Frankfurt, the estate that years before the Grand Duke Adolf had given to his consort, Adelheid Marie of the House of Anhalt.  There she stood by the bedside of that mortally-stricken, beloved figure of her childhood, of her adolescence, of her reign.  Again on November 20th, she went to bury her.

Adelheid-Marie, seen in the images below, was born in Dessau on December 25, 1833, and died at Schloss Königstein on November 24, 1916.  Sadly, Marie-Adélaïde's visits to her dying grandmother were used by her political opponents as evidence that she had been sympathetic to Germany during World War I.

 

Heinerscheid Registry No. 1

 

License plates with low numbers are much sought after.  But what about covers with low registry numbers?  Aren't they just as desirable?  Well, you'll have to decide.

Here's a cover with the optimum low registry number -- No. 1.  It is all the more remarkable because the number was written in the space provided for the registry number in the registry handstamp.  At least 95% of the covers I've seen have the number written outside the registry handstamp.

I also like the usage.  The cover was posted at Heinerscheid, May 23, 1922.  The Heinerscheid FSPL type 32 double-circle cancel is uncommon, even though it was used from 1910 until mid-October 1940.  (Heinerscheid was never issued a type 33 bridge-and-bar canceler.)  The cover was backstamped at Echternach the next day -- May 24, 1922.

The 25c Marie-Adélaïde definitive pays the domestic 20g letter rate; the 50c pays the registry fee.

How many number ones are in your collection?  No, I don't mean how many of the 10c William III 1852 issue.  These number ones are considerably scarcer!

A railway cancel in manuscript!

 

Ambulant
Ech/Ettelbr
8/7/91

 

As a long-time collector of Luxembourg railway cancels, I can't recall ever before seeing a railroad cancel rendered in manuscript.  But here is a recently-acquired 5c Allegory (3^rd series) postal card with such a cancel from the Echternach-Ettelbrück TPO.

This rail line made its way from Echternach to Ettelbrück, passing by Weilerbach, Bollendorf, Grundhof, Dillingen, Wallendorf, Reisdorf, Moestroff, Bettendorf, and Gilsdorf.

Here's an example of the cancel:

 

Why was the card uprated to 10 centimes?

The card is uprated to ten centimes, so I assume the destination was the village of Bollendorf in Germany on the left bank of the Sauer river, opposite Bollendorf-Pont on the Luxembourg side. 

The addressee is a Mademoiselle Barreau, perhaps residing at the Bollendorf Waldvilla Barreau seen on the postcard below:

 

 

This card would fit nicely into an exhibit of either railway cancels or Allegory postal stationery.  Maybe that's why it was so expensive!

 

Centilux & Jack Beken

 

This is a correctly franked cover posted from the Centilux philatelic exhibition on the last day of the show, June 4, 1952.  The Centilux tête-bêche pair and the 2 F Europa commemorative pay the 4-franc UPU letter rate and 4-franc registry fee.  The oval backstamp documents the cover's arrival at Isleworth, Middlesex, England, June 7, 1952.  And so it's a nice modern postal history cover.

But it's a lot more.  As a young collector in the 1960s, I enjoyed putting together a modest Liechtenstein collection.  In those days, long before the advent of Internet technology, obtaining philatelic information and solving philatelic mysteries required dedicated correspondence with knowledgeable senior collectors.  One of the kindest and most helpful was the late Jack Beken, the British gentlemen and Liechtenstein philately authority to whom this cover is addressed.  No matter how naïve or elementary the question, Jack Beken always provided a satisfying answer.  It was a sad day in 1977 when I learned that this distinguished philatelist had died.

I sold most of my Liechtenstein material long ago to finance Luxembourg purchases, but the eight-stamp block below remains.  When I acquired the block for $6.00  from a Matthew Bennett auction in the 1960s, I was clueless why it was imperforate and ungummed.  Of course Jack Beken had the answer -- it's a proof! 

Now we have ever fewer devoted philatelic authorities like Jack Beken.  When there is none, philately will be remembered mostly as a curious pursuit rather than the learned endeavor it is.

An unusual mixed franking uprating a 5c Allegory Postal Card in 1888!

 

Luxembourg's classic postal stationery ends with the last Coat of Arms issue in 1881; the neo-classics begin with the Allegory stationery in 1882. 

Sometimes -- not very often -- we find the 1880 Haarlem print definitives used to uprate an Allegory postal card, and almost always the card will be from the first Allegory stationery issue.  So you can imagine my pleasure when I discovered this 5c card from the third Allegory stationery issue uprated with a 1c Allegory definitive and a 4c Arms definitive from the 1875 local print definitives.

Judging by the long message on the back, use of the 4c Arms definitive was an act of frugality, and not a philatelic creation.  The card left Echternach on September 1, 1888, between 12:00-1:00 p.m., transited Luxembourg-Gare a few hours later, between 3:00-4:00 p.m., and arrived in Paris the next day.  There is a blue-green Paris Etranger cds tying the two stamps to the card and a Paris (66) R. Meissonier delivery cds.

And there's an added bonus.  This card has an unserifed 'A' before the first address line above 'An.'  This shows that it is from the initial printing of 41,000 third-issue 5c cards.  These were delivered in July 1888.  The 37 subsequent printings that appeared from August 14, 1888 through December 24, 1894, comprising 2,647,990 cards, all feature a serifed 'A.' 

There's really nothing that I dislike about this card. I think even those collectors whose nose takes a downward turn when postal stationery appears will appreciate and enjoy it.

Philatelic hanky-panky

 

The English expression  hanky-panky refers to activity that is devious or mischievous.  A common form of philatelic hanky-panky is the use of stamps prior to their official release date. 

Consider the Souvenir II cover below:

The Souvenir II surcharges were issued on May 27, 1923 -- the date shown on the stamps.  But the vertical strips of three on this 48-gram registered cover to Paris are postmarked at Wecker on May 23, 1923 -- four days earlier.  Even the poster stamp on the back is tied by a Wecker May 23rd cancel.  And there is also a Luxembourg-Ville transit dated May 23rd. 

That the return address on the envelope flap has been torn off also suggests hanky-panky.  Even today premature use of Luxembourg stamps is unusual, and certainly such use in the 1920s must have been a serious violation of government policy.  But knowledgeable collectors know that this cover was not the only hanky-panky that emanated from a certain entrepreneur in Wecker (and Berbourg)!  

The cover is overfranked.  At 48 grams, the postage would have been 70c plus a 50c registry fee, for a total of  1.20F.  The stamps affixed, however, total 1.50F. 

French customs was also curious.  The customs label indicates that the letter was to be held for customs inspection!

The handed-back cover below shows the stamps actually canceled on the first day of issue:

Saar Protectorate rates after World War I

 

Under the Treaty of Versailles, the Saar area was occupied jointly by the United Kingdom and France. In 1920, Britain and France established a nominally independent occupation government in an area separated from the previous Prussian Rhine province (main part) enlarged by two Bavarian districts (Homburg and St. Ingbert) ceded from the Palatinate.

This arrangement was sanctioned by a 15-year League of Nations mandate.   During the post-World War I mandate, mail from Luxembourg to the Saar Protectorate was charged the UPU rate.  Only after the Saar was returned to Germany did the German treaty rates again apply, beginning March 1, 1935.

Here's an example:

Vianden, transit Diekirch, to Dellingen, the Saar,
September 19, 1921

UPU 20g letter rate = 50c

UPU registry fee = 50c

The Souvenir I set (10c, 15c, & 25c) and the 50c Marie Adélaïde correctly pay the one-franc rate.  If the cover had been mailed to Germany, the treaty rate in September 1921 for 20g letters (30c) would have applied plus a 50c registry fee.

Check the covers in your collection posted between 1920 and 1935 to the Saar Protectorate.  Were they correctly rated?

In an earlier post, I showed covers paying the special post-World War II rates to the Saarland that were in effect from 1949 to 1958.  You can find the post here.

Modern Postal History Delights

 

Collecting modern postal history can offer you a lot of philatelic pleasure without emptying your bank account.  My "modern" Luxembourg collection begins with the issues of the late 1950s.  It has no arbitrary ending date. 

So-called "modern covers" are like young children.  They might not yet have found their place in the (postal history) world, but that will just take time.  Give them another fifty years to mature.  Collectors will look back over the immediate past 75 or 100 years, caterwauling about  the beauty of covers showing the rates, routes and markings of the latter half of the 21st century.  And some pundits will wonder why so many such covers were tossed in the bin by the 21st century postal historians.

Here are a few examples of delightful modern Caritas covers:

 

Domestic 1969 Registered Special Delivery Cover
with Mixed-Issue 1968-1969 Caritas Franking

 

Walferdange, transit Luxembourg-Ville [b/s], December 30, 1969, incoming to Strassen [b/s], December 31, 1969, for delivery in Bridel.

*  20-100g domestic letter =  6,00 F

*  Registry fee = 10,00 F

*  Special Delivery fee = 10,00 F

Correctly franked thus:

3F+50c 1968 Caritas (4) (valid only to the end of 1969),
2F+25c & 6F+1F (2) 1969 Caritas

Covers with mixed-issue Caritas frankings are scarce.  The Caritas issues prior to 1986 were only valid to the end of the year following their issuance.  Thus there typically were only a few days when both issues could be used.

For the cover shown above, the 1968 Caritas stamps were valid only to the end of 1969.  The 1969 Caritas stamps were issued on December 8, 1969.  Therefore 1968-1969 mixed-issue Caritas frankings were only possible for 24 days -- from December 8 to December 31, 1969.  You better check the bargain boxes at your favorite bourse to add a few to your collection!

 

The Elegance of Sole Frankings
on Correctly-rated Covers

 

 Weiswampach, May 5, 1959, to Mondorf-les-Bains [b/s], May 6th,
correctly rated 2.50F for a domestic letter up to 50 g, with sole franking of the 2.50F+50c 1958 Caritas Capellen coat-of-arms stamp.

Sole frankings exude the elegance of a beautiful flower in full bloom.  Searching for correctly rated, sole-franked covers for each value of a set is a worthy task, not easily accomplished! 

 

Postings to Exotic Destinations|
(such as Uganda)

 

Luxembourg-Ville, March 3, 1988, to Kampala, Uganda,
with three 1987 Caritas stamps paying 28F postage.

 

UPU 20g letter = 20F

Airmail supplement (3F/10g) = 6F (?)

(Overfranked 2F)

 

Highest Value of a Set Properly Used

 

Luxembourg-Gare, December 20, 1962, to Wandsbeker, Germany, franked with the 2.50F+50c and 8.50F+4.60F 1962 Caritas stamps.  The 8.50F is the highest value of the six-stamp 1962 Caritas set.

Assuming a 40-60g letter to Germany, the 11F postage pays:

1st 20g = 5F

Plus 3F for each add'l 20g = 6F

 

The auxiliary postal label applied at Lübeck indicates that the letter arrived damaged [Beschädigt] on December 21st.  It was repaired with eight official postal seals.