In 1942, the Hungarian Post issued its first stamps honouring the work of the Red Cross. Eight further similar issues appeared later, the last in 2010. The four stamps in the set carried surcharges totalling 2 pengő. The proceeds were donated to the Hungarian Red Cross and the Federation for the Care of Disabled War Veterans.
A notable philatelic feature of the issue is that the stamps were released in miniature sheets of 10. These were Hungary’s first miniature sheets. The four miniature sheets together cost almost 100 pengő, of which 80 pengő represented the charitable surcharge—roughly equivalent to the weekly wage of an average worker at the time. Many sheets were, of course, broken up by dealers and sold as individual stamps.
Because of the substantial surcharge, relatively few examples saw genuine postal use, so covers franked with these stamps are now scarce. As the stamps were printed in several passes, minor colour-registration shifts may also occur.
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