BavariaFirst Postage Stamp

Bayerische Ziffern, where German philately begins

Issued by the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1849, more than twenty years before German unification, this set of Bavarian Numerals marks the beginning of adhesive postage in the German lands. Germany did not yet exist as a unified nation, but this issue established a model later followed by other German states. The series consists of three numeral values, 1, 3, and 6 Kreuzer, all sharing the same bold design in black, blue, and brown. Printed on handmade paper and issued imperforate, they were built for function, not display. To deter forgery, the 3 and 6 Kreuzer were printed on paper with an embedded red silk thread, visible as a thin vertical line. In the example shown here, it runs horizontally centred through the design. The 1 Kreuzer, intended mainly for local mail was printed without the thread. Today, the 1 Kreuzer is noticeably scarcer, while the 3 and 6 Kreuzer appear more often in collections. Even so, examples with four large margins and a clear town cancel can remain challenging to find. Unsurprisingly, the issue has long attracted forgers, with Peter Winter among the most prolific producers of Bavarian imitations.