2018-07-13 Fri

A war tax stamp is a type of postage stamp added to an envelope in addition to regular postage. The revenue generated from them is used to defray the costs of a war.

During the time of World War II, Croatia was a puppet state of Germany and Italy. Being in the centre of the Europe the state did get affected by the war. Hence, to generate revenue during as well as after the war, the Independent State of Croatia issued a set of war tax stamps.

The stamps were issued at the beginning of 1944 and were in effect for quite a long time. The first lot was issued on January 2nd 1944. 1 kuna green stamp was used for postal stationeries whereas 2 kuna red was for letters, money orders, parcels and telegrams sent from Croatia.

The second set of three stamps was issued on June 15th 1944 which comprised of 5 kunas black for postal stationeries, 10 kuna blue for letters, value letters, money orders, telegrams and parcels up to 10 kg and 20 kunas for telegrams with paid reply and parcels of above 20 kg. Stamps for 30 and 60 kunas were planned to be released on the January 1st 1945 but the printing was delayed and the issue postponed.

The stamp depicts a man in distress with his head wrapped in a bandage. The name of the country is on at the top with its value in the right and words “ratni doprinos” (war contribution) at the bottom.

These stamps are a witness of one of the horrible and bloody era in the history of mankind.

Image Curtsey: http://worldstampsproject.org