Polish Stamp

In the mid-1800s, while Poland was occupied by foreign powers, a postal revolution swept Europe. Great Britain succeeded in producing a self-adhesive, universal penny stamp in 1840, and the Universal Postal Union was founded in 1874. Polish citizens did get to reap the benefits of these new postal technologies. However, citizens in Russian-occupied Poland were, by and large, forced to use Russian stamps.There is one exception. In the year 1880, the Russian governing authorities allowed Poland to create a single national Polish stamp. Sold for 10 kopeks, this stamp could only be used to send mailings internally in Poland and internationally to Russia. In World War I, Poland was swallowed up by Germany and Austria. During this time, Poles were forced to employ Austrian stamps. As a kind of backlash, some Polish cities started putting out their own stamps, which overprinted the Austrian stamps. (A word of warning: Polish stamp collectors who focus on this era of philately should be aware that numerous forgeries of Polish World War I stamps exist. It can be difficult to tell fraudulent efforts apart from the real McCoys, so you should either chemically or expertly analyze any pieces you find from this era.)In 1919 and 1920, the newly independent Poland printed several Polish stamps in two different denominations. These included the ''Fenigow'' and ''Halerzy'' stamps, as well as the ''Marek'' stamp, which became Poland's postal currency of choice by 1922. Curiously, Poland created national stamps well before the country successfully minted and distributed its national currency, which didn't get printed until 1923.