Wien Combined Town and Registration Cancellers

by H G White

Although town marks were first used in the late 18^th century, separate marks to denote Registered Mail were not introduced until the 1830s. Handstamps combining both town and registration also appeared at this time. However, Vienna pre-empted all others by introducing in 1824 a single line marking [Mü 1697 Ra] ('Mü' are references to E Müller's Handbooks; 'K' to Klein's: see the Library List.)

V.WIEN:RECOM:

This was a modification of the late 18^th century 'V:WIEN' cancels [Mü 1697 H and I] and, uniquely for a post-1818 cancel, it still includes the 'V' (for 'von').

Note that in Müller's two books on early postmarks, the wording of listings in the catalogue sections are only simplifications of the cancel, and that the accurate versions with actual typescript, punctuation and so on are given in the illustrations in the preceding text. The straight-line cancel was followed in 1833 by an elaborate double framed oval [Mü 1697 Rb] illustrated on the left.

When the inclusion of dates in the hand stamps was ordered, a bold three-line cancel WIEN/RECOMMAND:/date: [Mü 1697 Rc] was introduced in 1837.

This 3-line version remained in use after postage stamps appeared in 1850, but almost at once circular date stamp cancellers replaced it. Three versions of these CDS were produced, varying in the type of lettering, the first two having a life of only 1-2 years before the third became standard in 1852. Initially, cancellations were in black but in 1857 the colour was changed to red and one can find dated examples on all of the first five Classic stamp issues until this circular type gave way to a vertical rectangle in 1863.

3-line version on a stamp [Mü 3214Ra]	CDS version 1 [Mü  3214Rb]
CDS version 2 [Mü 3214Rc]	CDS version 3 [Mü 3214Rd]
1863 rectangle [Mü 3214Re]	Arrival mark [Mü 3214Rf]

The last example above is an unusual oval arrival mark for registered mail, similar to the 1833 type above, which Vienna retained when the rule of placing the stamp paying the registration on the back of the letter ceased in 1866 and with it to a large extent combined town and registration marks. The envelope has the double-oval mark on the back; the front (shown below) has EXPRESSBRIEF and RECOM marks in red. The literature, incidentally, is unclear on express rates before 1900.

Plain ovals as illustrated to the left and below (WIEN/RECOMMAND) with day/month figures inside or a blank for the registration serial number [Mü3214Rg ie K6242c] followed. On the second example, the postmark was applied twice: once in red (wrongly, and crossed out in black) to indicate prepayment, then again in black to indicate no such payment, as this was an official letter for which no charge was made anyway. The manuscript '239' is the serial number.

©Andy Taylor. Last updated 2 Mar 2000.