CSR Liberation Overprints 1945

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CSR Liberation Overprints 1945

Peter Valdner (2014, updated) 

In 2011, my first article about the revolutionary overprints was published. I am pleased to note that since then, I have not encountered anyone who would doubt their existence and use in 1945. I do not pretend that this is thanks to my article; however, I believe it is due to the books of Mr. Juan Santaeugenia Grau and Karel Holoubek, which I mentioned in that article.

A more advanced collector must have been surprised, however, that J. Santaeugenia’s book mentions and illustrates far more overprints than K. Holoubek’s. Could it be that a foreign collector had better information than a well-known collector in the Czech Republic? The very simple explanation I received directly from K. Holoubek was that he listed only the stamps that he had in his own collection.

Another question, however, remained: is the assignment of individual overprints to specific towns and villages in J. Santaeugenia’s book correct? For collectors of stamp-issuing territories (ASFE), this is a fundamental question. The doubt arose from the fact that in six editions of his book, some overprints “moved” from one town to another. However, examination of available covers that had actually passed through the post showed that in the latest edition (the sixth, the only one in color), the assignments—at least those I was able to verify with covers—are apparently correct.

I nevertheless decided to make one more check—to look into a case that K. Holoubek does not mention, but J. Santaeugenia Grau does. By chance, I happened to be in the right place at the right time and came across a very interesting document, signed by the commander of the “partisan” unit Mstitel, which operated under the command of B. Havránek in May 1945 in Strašnice, Prague.

J. Santaeugenia lists the Strašnice stamps in alphabetical order as follows:

As can be seen from the following document, he was not far from the truth. In fact, more stamps were overprinted than he listed, but indeed all of them did exist. From the document, it is even possible to determine when and where they were produced, and at which post office and when they were postmarked.

And the Military Central Archive of the Czech Republic confirmed that Blahomír Havránek, who signed the document, really did command the Mstitel unit at that time and place. 

Thus, the logical conclusion: the information in J. Santaeugenia’s book—known to us as Grau—is reliable, though not complete.

Visitors to the Bratislava Collectors’ Days or the Sběratel fair in Prague will surely have noticed a collector from Norway who is searching for the overprints. Ten years ago, he knew nothing about them and collected ASFE in general. Then we met, he visited me, bought J. Santaeugenia’s book, and today he is preparing an exhibition exhibit on the topic of the revolutionary overprints of Czechoslovakia.

Therefore, once again, I recommend to all serious enthusiasts of the Czechoslovak revolutionary overprints that they acquire J. Santaeugenia’s (Grau’s) book with color photographs of the overprints. The investment will repay itself as soon as you uncover just two or three series of forgeries.

If you were not able to open the website with the 2011 article, here once more is the cover of Juan SANTAEUGENIA Grau’s book. 

 

Sources: Internet and archives of the author

Contact: valdpete@yahoo.com