The Sachsen 3 Pfennige red, commonly called ''Sachsendreier'', issued on 29 June 1850 and valid from 1 July 1850 until 31 December 1867, was the first
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...
of the
Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxo ...
, making Saxony the second among the
German States (after the
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German ...
) to issue postage stamps.
The beginning of the stamp's postal validity coincides with the inauguration of the
Austro-German Postal Union
The Austro-German Postal Union (''Deutsch-Österreichischer Postverein'', literally "German–Austrian Postal Association") was a union of the postal systems of the Austrian Empire and the pre-German Empire, Empire German states. The union was e ...
, which had the aim of simplifying the hitherto diverse postal system in Germany, including the payment of postage and the settlement of postal fees between the members of the union. Postage stamps had by then already proven convenient in other countries.
With its value of 3
Pfennig
The 'pfennig' (; . 'pfennigs' or ; symbol pf or ₰) or penny is a former German coin or note, which was the official currency from the 9th century until the introduction of the euro in 2002. While a valuable coin during the Middle Ages, ...
e ( = 3/10
Neugroschen
The ''Neugroschen'' ("new ''groschen''", abbreviation ''Ngr.'') was a Saxon '' Scheidemünze'' coin minted from 1841 to 1873 which had the inscription ''Neugroschen''.
This ''groschen'', made of billon, was equivalent to the Prussian ''grosche ...
= 1/100
Thaler), the ''Sachsendreier'' was meant to frank
printed matter
Printed matter is a term, mostly used by mailing systems, normally used to describe mechanically printed materials for which reduced fees are paid which are lower than first-class mail. Each postal administration has it own rules for what may be p ...
s, such as
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
s in
wrappers. Senders often attached the stamp in such a way that half of it stuck to the wrapper, and half to its contents, such that the wrappers could not slide off. Consequently, most stamps of this issue were destroyed,
and only less than 1% of the original number has been preserved.
The ''Sachsendreier'' was printed in
typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), ...
on sheets of five by four stamps. Altogether, 500,000 stamps in 25,000 sheets were printed in eight different printings, which can be distinguished by the colour of the printing ink, which varies from a
pale brick red to
carmine.
[Dieck 1921, chapter "Der Sachsen-Dreier"] 463,118 stamps of this issue were sold, the remainder was burned.
Only about three or four thousand ''Sachsendreier'' stamps have been preserved. Most of them are
cancelled by
penstroke or
postmark
A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit ...
, about 10% are unused. One complete sheet has survived, but in a restored state.
It had been found stuck to a wall and had been damaged upon removal. It has changed hands several times, most recently in 1994.
A second sheet had been broken up in the 1890s.
A block of six stamps is the property of ''Museum für Kommunikation Berlin'', the successor of ''Reichspostmuseum''; a block of four stamps from the lower right corner is in private hands.
Due to its rarity, the stamp has often been
forged
Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which it ...
. Its popularity has made it part of the design of several commemorative stamp issues, and around 1900 the private Dresdner Verkehrs-Anstalt Hansa issued a stamp whose design strongly resembles the ''Sachsendreier''. The price of a stamp is around $30,000 for one stamp to around $220,000 for a block.
Bibliography
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*
*
* {{cite book , author = Arnim Knapp , title = Der "Sachsen-Dreier" der königlich sächsischen Postverwaltung , publisher = Heinrich Köhler GmbH & Co. KG , place = Wiesbaden , year = 2010
References
Postage stamps of Germany
19th century in Saxony