2018-05-15 Tue

Baltukai Issue was the first Lithuanian postage stamps. The postal history of Lithuania started around the 10th or 12th century or even earlier, with a pre-Christian messaging system known as krivule. The first mail service was introduced in 1562, connecting Vilnius with Krakow, and Venice. However, the first Lithuanian postage stamps were issued in Vilnius in the year 1918.

The postal service of the Post-World-War I republic urgently required new definitive postage stamps, so perforated type-set stamps were quickly produced in Vilnius and Kaunas. A total of 768 stamps of different designs were issued by the Republic of Lithuania between 1918 and 1940.

These first definitive stamps were printed in sheets of twenty, and they were perforated 11 1/2. The outside borders of the sheets were not perforated, so there are only six stamps in each of the sheets that are perforated all the way around.

The stamps were issued in a single colour and the value and “Lithuania post” is printed in black ink within a rectangular bracket of hollow circles. The stamps show contemporary denomination “Skatiku” which is now replaced by the Common Currency of the European Union.

This is what makes the collecting more interesting.

Image Curtsey: http://lithuanianphilately.com