2019-04-11 Thu

The five stamps of the German state of Bergedorf shown above were issued on November 1, 1861, which were circulation only until 1868.

The town of Bergedorf had been jointly owned by the Hanseatic city-states of Hamburg and Lubeck. Hamburg's stamps were officially sold alongside those of Bergedorf at the post office counters, so very few of the Bergedorf postage stamps were actually ever used.

A handful of stamps were issued 1st November 1861 on colored, unwatermarked paper. These imperforate stamps were issued with the denominations of ½ Schilling, 1 Schilling, 1 ½ Schilling, 3 Schilling, and 4 Schilling.

The center of the stamps featured a design consisting of the right half of the coat of arms of Hamburg and the left half of the coat of arms of Lubeck flanked by the denomination value in words. The stamp is also inscribed with “BERGEDORF” on top and “POSTEMARKE” at the bottom. The Denomination numeral is seen at four corners.

In 1868, Hamburg bought Bergedorf from Lübeck for 200,000 Prussian Thalers. Since then, Bergedorf has been a borough of Hamburg. Bergedorf, along with Hamburg, became part of the North German Confederation, and their postal service was replaced by that of the North German Postal District.

Image Courtesy: https://www.stamp-collecting-world.com

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