Schwarzer Einser – Strip of three

The signing of the postal contract between Philip the Fair and Francis of Taxis in 1505 is also attributed with the establishment of the first modern postal service. Initially conducted only as a dynastic postal service, it became available to the general public around 1530, with the main postal route in the Holy Roman Empire initially being the Dutch postal route. German princes did not set up their own postal routes until the second half of the 16th century. The main cities of Augsburg, Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig and Hamburg were connected by postal routes.

The history of philately, however, began in 1840 with the One Penny Black. Gradually, other states followed their lead. In 1846, following England’s example, the principle of the postage stamp was finally adopted in German states, with an initial proposal in February 1845. The pioneer was the Kingdom of Bavaria, which issued the first German stamp, the ” Schwarze Einser”, on 1 November 1849. It appeared in a fairly large issue of 832,000 stamps and had a face value of one Kreuzer, the franking at the time for a local letter and the rate for sending printed materials such as price lists or advertising brochures. However, only large post offices were open on the publication date, the All Saints’ Day holiday, and consequently only a few stamps are known to have been used as early as November 1. 

However, the design of the stamp in deep black ink, designed by the engraver Johann Peter Haseney, whose initials are printed hidden in the patterned background of the large overprinted value, did not prove to be successful, as it was cancelled with black ink. The stamp was produced on two different plates, with the first plate causing a blurred, coarse print. The second plate from 1850 produced a clearer print. With the first plate, printing took place on a double sheet of 180 pieces, and with the second plate, only on a single sheet of 90 pieces. Consequently, the print quality improved. The dark black strip of three shown here was printed with the first plate in 1849 (first printing).