The History and Thematics of Croatian Postage Stamps

On the territory of the Republic of Croatia the first postage stamp was used on June 1st 1850. The association of philatelists was founded 16 years later, and the first important International Philatelic Exhibition was organised in 1907 in the Art Pavilion in Zagreb.

In the twentieth century the postal administrations of several state systems on the territory of Croatia continued issuing postage stamps, which used the printed titles of the respected states from 1850 until the 15th of January 1992.

The creation of the first postage stamp of the Republic of Croatia was issued in 1991, one year before the international recognition of Croatia’s independence.

In February 1991 the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia appointed the Commission in charge of issuing of the postage stamps of the Republic of Croatia. Duties of the Commission were: to make plans for issuing the postage stamps, selecting the theme, inviting tenders for the artistic solution of the chosen themes, selecting the best artistic solution, taking care of printing and monitoring of the printing process etc. The working conditions were not favourable – regarding either the staff or legal basis and technical support.

In Croatia, when everything started from scratch, the only assets on our side were positive attitude, national pride, professionalism and some luck. On the other hand some outside conditions were not very favourable and the conditions were very problematic. The Republic of Croatia at that time was still a member of the Yugoslav federation, which was at that time still the member of the Universal Postal Union. In consideration of these conditions the Croatian Post decided to start issuing the charity stamp. According to the relevant legislation the non-postal institutions issue the charity stamps and the post is only acting as the distributor.

The first charity stamp was issued on 1st April 1991. In this series of charity stamps in favour of “Hrvatski radiša” (the Croatian Worker), as the first of six issues, the gold-black postage stamp, designer Boris Bućan, “Mass for Homeland in Zagreb Cathedral” was issued (this beautiful postage stamp remains for ever written down in golden letters as part of the history of the postage stamps of the Republic of Croatia). That occasion marked for the first time the use of the frame of the selling sheet with thirty places and twenty-five postage stamps in which the thirteenth position is the coat of arms, the twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, twenty-ninth and thirtieth is the enlarged motive of the postage stamp (without nominal value). The mentioned sheet was named “the Croatian sheet” and under this name became well known in the world. Since 1995 the Croatian sheet has also been used for certain issues of postage stamps for some special occasions. The Croatian Post continued with issuing the charity postage stamps until January 1992.

From July 17th 1991, upon the decision of the Government of the Republic of Croatia the issuing of these postage stamps for regular airmail began. The charity stamps were issued for airmail destinations to Zagreb-Dubrovnik, Zagreb-Split, Zagreb-Pula and Zagreb-Osijek. The mentioned charity stamps were to be used only for domestic traffic and affixed alongside the regular Yugoslav postage stamps.

On September 9, 1991 the first regular postage stamp of the Republic of Croatia was published as an additional tariff, with the value of one Yugoslav dinar for airmail post to Zagreb-Dubrovnik. Since 1995, September 9th has been celebrated as the Day of the Croatian Stamp. Each year on that particular date a commemorative postage stamp has been issued.

In December 1991, the first commemorative postage stamps of the Republic of Croatia were issued. The first one on December 10th commemorating the date of the Proclamation of Independence, the second on December 11th, the Christmas postage stamp. On January 15, 1992 when Croatia was internationally recognised its’ postage stamps acquired all the attributes of official means of postage payment for national and international traffic.

In the first ten years of issuing the Croatian postage stamps the nominal values have been printed in three currencies: Yugoslav dinar (1991), Croatian dinar (from 1992 till the May 1994) and Kuna (since June 1994).

THE THEMES OF THE POSTAGE STAMPS

The Croatian postage stamps featured in the last decade numerous themes. Historic events, personalities from the distant and recent past, the Croatian War of Independence, admission of Croatia into CEPT and the United Nations, Croatian natural heritage and tourist centres (mountains, lakes, coastline and islands, cities, fortresses, convents, flora and fauna, palaeontology, sport achievements, individuals, Olympics, competitions), Croatian Art (paintings, sculptures, architecture-artists and their work), literature (writers and their work), music, philosophy, science, inventions, language, cultural and scientific institutions (Matica, HAZU) and numerous other themes. Besides the domestic topics from the origins of the tie (kravat) and the Parliament many foreign topics were also taken as the theme of the postage stamps such as the discovery of America and so forth. Also the Christmas postage stamp has been issued each year. At times two of them for domestic and for foreign traffic.

A large number of specialists were involved in the creation and production of Croatian Croatian postage stamps.

These include prominent artists, painters, designers, engravers, and young students that utilized their skills and talents. They all deserve to be mentioned and in alphabetical order: Ivan Antolčić, Nevenka Arbanas, Lovro Artuković, Ivica Belinić, Josip Biffel, Želimir Borić, Josip Botteri Dini, Davor Bruketa, Boris Bućan, Dragutin Cifrek, Zlatko Čular, Nenad Dogan, Maja Franić, Orsat Franković, Petar Jakelić, Darko Jakić, Zlatko Jakuš, Ratko Janjić Jobo, Zlatko Kauzlarić Atač, Zlatko Keser, Sanja Kirinić, Eugen Kokot, Rudolf Labaš, Ivan Lacković Croata, Zvonimir Lončarić, Ivan Lovrenčić, Boris Ljubičić, Toni Nikolić, Frane Paro, Danijel Popović, Vojo Radoičić, Sanja Rešček, Branko Silađin, Hrvoje Šercar, Ivica Šiško, Nikola Šiško, Miroslav Šutej, Zdravko Tišljar, Mladen Veža, Dubravka Zglavnik, Dragan Žilić, Nikola Žinić, Nada Žiljak i Vilko Žiljak.

We should mention also the foreign artists who took part in the joint issues: the designer of the Austrian twins was Auguste Boecskoer, the designers of the Slovak twins were Josef Balaž and Martin Činovsky, and the designer of the joint all European motive for the postage stamp “Europe 2000” was the French artist J.P. Cousin. The designer of the commemorative postage stamp “Vlaho Bukovac”, joint issue with the Check Post was Jan Saloper, and the engraver was Vaclav Fajt. In 2001 the Year of the Dialogue between Civilisations, the designer from Slovenia Urska Golob was the author of the unique design of the postage stamp, used from all the members of the Universal Postal Union.

To produce stamps the Croatian Post worked with and to date work with the printing houses: “Zrinski” from Čakovec and Croatian Printing Institute (Hrvatski tiskarski zavod) from Zagreb. The Croatian Post has issued some of its postage stamps as joint issues with foreign postal administrations and used foreign printing houses: Belgium printing house “Vicindo, Zegeldrukerij Imprimerie du Timbre”, from Mechelen where the postage stamp “Lace “ was printed, the Czech printing house “Poštovni tiskarna Cenin Praha” from Prague, where two postage stamps “The Cardinal Juraj Haulik” and “Vlaho Bukovac” were printed and the Netherlands printing house “Joh. Enschede Stamps” from Haarlem printed the joint issue of the Croatian Post and the Vatican, “500th Anniversary of the Birth of Juraj Julije Klović”.

Source:

  • Croatian Post. Inc. - http://www.posta.hr/main.aspx?id=138


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Created: Wednesday, August 23, 2006; Last update: Tuesday, December 21, 2021
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