UPU (I) – Souvenir Sheet

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union, the postal administration issued a one-denomination airmail souvenir sheet supplementing the series issued in 1949.     To mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union, the postal administration issued a one-denomination airmail souvenir sheet supplementing the series issued in 1949. The souvenir sheet contains four identical stamps. Along the white upper margin is a dark-brown inscription in French: “75E ANNIVERSAIRE DE L'UNION POSTALE”. Serial numbers printed with a hand-operated numbering machine appear in the lower-left corner of the margin. 

Very strict rules applied to the sale of the issue. Each buyer could receive only one unused stamp at the designated post offices (Budapest Main Post Office, Budapest 62, 72 and 114, Balassagyarmat, Debrecen 1, Eger 1, Győr 1, Kaposvár 1, Miskolc 1, Nyíregyháza 1, Pécs 1, Sopron 1, Szeged 1, Szolnok 1 and Szombathely 1).  In addition, affixed to envelopes, the stamps were also sold by larger post offices that had ordered such covers from the Hungarian Philatelic Company. 

Only small quantities of complete perforated souvenir sheets reached domestic collectors; in commercial trade, imperforate souvenir sheets were more commonly available. Imperforate souvenir sheets were less often torn apart into individual stamps.

In Hungary the issue was delivered to post offices in souvenir sheets containing four stamps, but domestic sales were made only as individual stamps after the sheet had been torn apart. The only exception was organised collectors of blocks of four, who received the issue as an intact souvenir sheet.

The combination of strong international and domestic demand, together with the fact that many souvenir sheets entered circulation only after being torn into individual stamps, undoubtedly contributed to their becoming some of the most valuable Hungarian souvenir sheets today.

According to the Monograph of Hungarian Stamps, a few perforated souvenir sheets without serial numbers also exist; these were produced mainly for presentation purposes.