PrussiaFirst Postage Stamp

Millions sent, millions made

On 15 November 1850, Prussia became the third German state to issue stamps, following Bavaria in 1849 and Saxony in mid-1850. Its debut set carried the profile of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Four engraved values (½, 1, 2, and 3 silbergroschen) were printed on coloured paper, with a laurel-wreath watermark. The scale was huge: tens of millions rolled off the presses, feeding more than 1,700 post offices and nearly 2,000 numeral cancels. Yet despite that output, well-cut four-margin copies are scarcer than you’d expect, most were trimmed tight by users. Forgeries soon followed. The Spiro Brothers of Hamburg, Angelo Oneglia in Italy, and François Fournier in Geneva all produced imitations, many still hiding in old collections today. Tells for the genuine: stronger paper tone, Laurel wreath watermark, and the fine cross-hatched background, while later printings have a plain background and official reprints were also made. Prussia’s first issue was bold in scale, technically ahead of its German peers, and remains a classic full of character for collectors to study.