POSTAL STATIONERY

Postal stationery is alive and well in Belgium!

With more than 2790 different cards in the "Publibel" series of advertising postcards alone, the field of Belgian postal stationery is probably larger than that of the stamps. What might be termed traditional postal stationery, namely postcards, letter cards, envelopes and eventually Aerogrammes employed as the imprint stamp one of the definitive series of stamps current at the time. All of the areas of study applied to the postal history of the adhesive stamps can be applied to postal stationery.

Postcards

First issued on 1st January 1871 the first postcard included detailed instructions at the sides of the card relating to their rather restricted usage. A year later the restrictions were lifted and a new smaller card issued and existing stocks modified by cutting off the instructions. Spotting the difference between the two can be problematical. Subsequent postcards employed the definitive series of stamp designs as the imprint stamp. Inland cards are printed on yellow or buff coloured card and the overseas variant on blue.

Postcards with Response "Reply"

First issued in September 1873 these cards also employed the definitive series of stamp designs as the imprint stamp. Likewise inland cards are printed on yellow or buff coloured card and the overseas variant on blue. Finding these with the reply portion still attached and correctly used can be difficult.

Letter Cards

Introduced on 15th December the inland variant is in blue and the overseas in rose in early issues.

Envelopes

First issued on 1st August 1873 they went out of fashion until the 1982 philatelic exhibition BELGICA 82 at which two varieties were issued.

Telegraph Cards

Change of Address Cards

Introduced as a formular card in 1937, cards with an imprint stamp were produced in the same year. All cards issued employed the lion of state design of stamp current at the time of issue.

Illustrated Cards

First issued for the 1897 Brussels exposition (See Exhibitions), the 75^th anniversary of independence in 1905 and the 1910 Brussels exposition, the pictorial designs were initially printed on the back of postcards from the series current at the time. Subsequent issues included the pictorial design on the same side at the imprint stamp.

The 75th anniversary issue was produced in six colours on the inkland 5 cent card and in red on the blue card of the 10c international card.

A similar series of cards for the paquebots between Ostend and Dover see "Cross Channel".

More recently the post office has been issuing special cards.

"Publibel" series of advertising postcards

OXADE, issued in 1933, is the first of the internal “Publibel” series of Belgian postcards to be printed by l’Agence Belge de Publicite Postale with the objective of raising funds for various charities. The design of the card includes an advertisement in the bottom left hand corner adjacent to the space for the delivery address and below the space for the sender’s address. The advertisement, which may be sponsored by government or commercial enterprises, appears in single language variants, French, Flemish or German and multiple language variants depending on the area in which the sponsor required the cards to be distributed.

The series reflects the changes in internal postcard rates seen in ordinary postcards, but is unique in employing only definitive stamps with the lion design current at the time of issue. The stamp imprints follow the four main series of adhesive stamps namely the short-lived “lion héraldique” (1929-32), the “petit sceau de l’Etat or lion écusson” (1935-51), the “chiffre sur lion” (1951-77) and finally the “chiffre sur lion avec banderole”. There are stamp values within the publibel cards that are not reflected in the adhesive postage stamp series and some of the colours are different where values correspond.

Surcharges in a variety of forms were employed when postage rates changed; such usage increasing during periods of rapid inflation to the extent that some cards exist with different stamp values whilst others are virtually unknown used without surcharges. Only a small number of cards were included in the -10% surcharges of 20 May 1946.

There are approximately 3000 different cards issued in print runs of between 500 and 2 million. The first 200 or so cards are not numbered but, with a few exceptions, cards after this include a number at the bottom of the left edge or left, bottom edge. Cards after No. 2225 include the letters F (French), V or N (Dutch) or A (German) used singly or in combinations to denote the language(s) employed on the cards. The cards appear in two sizes 140 x 90 mm. and 148 x 104 mm. Although primarily intended for internal use, there were two short tourist series issued in 1949 and 1957 for destinations abroad. Both were on the blue card usual for “cartes pour l’etranger’ and employed the 2,50fr. agricultural definitive in carmine or the 2,50fr. chiffre sur lion definitive in red. Many internal publibels were sent to destinations abroad with suitable additional adhesives added. Until 1990 the Societe Belge de l’entier Postal published a comprehensive catalogue of Belgian postal stationery that included a complete listing of the Publibel cards, this catalogue, generally known as “Entiers”. The numbers of cards issued declined rapidly in the 1980’s and ended with the 10fr. cards of 1984.

Aerogrammes

 Overprints and Surcharges

Postal stationery provides a wealth of overprints and surcharges, these are just a few:

“typographic”	“à la timbreuse électrique”	“à la pédale”
	P010 Malines	P010 Malines grand	P011 Antwerp
P018 Courtrai	P016 Ostende	P021 Liege	P017 Jemelle

BELGIUM PHILATELY         HOME       New Issues