Czechoslovakia Liberation Overprints Santaeugenia Grau once more
Peter Valdner (2025)
I have already published several articles on this blog about the Czechoslovak Revolutionary Overprints of 1945 and the books of Santaeugenia Grau. As the repetition is the mother of wisdom, I am returning to the topic once again.
In the 81st auction of the Burda company, a CSR Liberation collection—140 pages in total—was auctioned for 145,000 CZK (plus 21% fees), meaning the buyer paid more than 175,000 CZK, which is over seven thousand euros.
And if the collection had been divided into lots by type of overprint, or even by individual sets, I dare to estimate that the price would have far exceeded 500,000 CZK. But were all the overprints genuine?
For a collection of such scope, the probability that all overprints are genuine is almost zero. All the overprints were illustrated in the auction, so the auction house did practically everything in its power. It is unrealistic to expect them to understand every item being sold—in most cases they act only as intermediaries. Moreover, there is no official court-appointed expert for Czechoslovak revolutionary overprints. So it is entirely up to the interested collectors to rely on common sense—that is, their experience and Grau.
My common sense tells me that even the winning bidder relied on it. It was up to him to subtract the unrealistic overprints from the collection and place a recalculated bid. And when he later sells the stamps, he will earn far more than the 175,000 CZK invested.
When the collection is later sold off in auctions, the same situation will repeat. Do not expect the auctioneer to warn you about fake or fantastical overprints. They may not know about them at all. Everything will then depend on the bidders. And that is when Grau becomes indispensable.
To recognize fantastical overprints, even the black-and-white Grau is enough; for detecting forgeries, the color edition will serve you. The cost is around eight thousand CZK, but the excuse that it “cannot be obtained” is a poor one.
After all, the price of some series already exceeds ten thousand CZK. In an auction on 17 November 2025, a set of 23 postage stamps was auctioned for 11,700 CZK (plus fees).
Therefore, the overprints from the mentioned collection may reach similar price levels. Unfortunately, I do not have time to check individual items for collectors, so at least here are two examples where the overprints obviously were not Czechoslovakia revolutionary ones from May 1945.
So once again: keep Grau close and use your head. And if you need Grau, write to me. Forget the socialist motto, “Save—no matter what it costs!”
Sources: Internet a archives of the author
Contact to the author: valdpete@yahoo.com
