Poland 1860 'Polish No. 1' (10 Kopeck)

A stamp for a kingdom that was not quite a country

After the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna created a Kingdom of Poland, usually called Congress Poland, ruled by the Russian tsar as king. By the 1850s it kept its own administration, and on September 1, 1858, its postal service won autonomy from Russian control. Russia had issued its first stamp, a 10 kopeck value showing the imperial arms, in December 1857, and Warsaw soon followed.

An official circular dated December 2/14, 1859 (the two dates reflect the Julian and Gregorian calendars) announced the new stamp. It was issued on January 1, 1860. Because that day was a Sunday, it was actually available from January 2. Russian stamps could still be used in the Kingdom until April 1, 1860.

The design was almost a copy of Russia's first stamp. In place of the Russian arms it showed the arms of the Kingdom, the white eagle of Poland set on the breast of the double-headed Russian eagle. The value appears six times. The sides carry Cyrillic lettering, '10 KOPE.' at the left and 'SA LOT KOP' at the right, and below the arms the Polish words 'ZA ŁÓT KOP. 10' read, in effect, '10 kopecks for a łut,' an old Polish unit of weight of about 12.66 grams.

The stamp paid postage only inside the Kingdom and to Russia. Letters to other countries had to be paid in cash and went unstamped.

The engraver and the inventor

The original dies were cut by Henryk Mejer (also spelled Majer), an engraver at the Bank of Poland. Who designed the stamp is less certain. One Polish philatelic study credits the design to Jan Münchheymer, another bank engraver, while a later study from the same source says the designer is unknown.

The stamps were printed at the state stamp works in Warsaw on a press built by Izrael Abraham Staffel, a self-taught Jewish watchmaker and mechanic who had already won a gold medal at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London for a calculating machine. His press printed two colors and had a sheet counter. Sources disagree sharply on its speed: one gives 1,000 sheets an hour, a Polish study 120 sheets, or 12,000 stamps, an hour. The press was later used to print banknotes. Staffel, one biography notes, died as poor as he was born.

From Mejer's original dies, copper galvanotypes were made and assembled into two printing forms of 100 stamps each, one for the blue and one for the red. Each sheet was laid out in four blocks of 25, five by five, separated by unprinted gutters of 8 to 9 millimeters.

Five years, then a rising

The stamp lived through one of the most turbulent periods in Polish history. Anger over conscription into the Russian army set off the January Uprising, which began on January 22, 1863. Roughly 10,000 volunteers took on 90,000 Russian troops at first, fighting mostly as guerrillas, and the rising was crushed by June 1864.

The reprisals were heavy. The Kingdom lost what remained of its autonomy, Russian became the mandatory official language, and Russification intensified. The separate Polish stamp did not survive the crackdown. It was withdrawn on April 1, 1865, and Russian stamps replaced it. The 208,515 stamps still in stock were destroyed.

Polish collectors have identified eight printing batches between 1860 and early 1865, told apart by paper and shades of ink. The last printing run was completed in 1864.

Telling one copy from another

The paper came from the mill at Jeziorna, near Warsaw. It is white and unwatermarked, usually 0.06 to 0.08 millimeters thick, with thicker and thinner papers also known. The gum was rolled on before printing and ranges from yellowish to brownish, sometimes smooth and sometimes with vertical streaks.

Perforation was done after printing on a simple frame machine, and it shows. Gauges range from 11½ to 12¾, with 10 to 12 teeth across and 14 to 15 down. Colors fall into three main groups: light blue with pink, dark blue with pink, and dark blue with carmine.

Because the printing forms were built from many individual copper pieces that wore and cracked, the stamp has a large family of plate flaws, broken frames, damaged ornaments, spots in the shield and retouches, which specialists use to place a stamp on the sheet. Used copies usually carry a numeral cancel, a number from 1 to 332 inside concentric circles about 25 millimeters across, identifying the post office.

Forgeries are plentiful, and collectors are advised to have any copy examined by a recognized expert. Unused blocks are great rarities: one Polish study records a single block of six, a single block of four with full original gum and a single pair.

The never-hinged flaw copy

The example that sets the price benchmark here is unusual on two counts. It is mint and never hinged, with its gum untouched, and it shows two plate flaws: damage to the two lower numerals 10, and a spot between the oval and the outer frame line at lower right.

That stamp sold at auction in Germany in August 2018 for $40,671, a figure far above ordinary copies. The sale shows how condition and a documented plate flaw can turn a common first issue into a rarity.

Poland's 'Number One'

To Polish collectors the stamp is simply 'Polska nr 1,' the first entry in every catalog of Polish stamps. It remained the only Polish stamp of the 19th century: after its withdrawal, Poland issued no stamps of its own until independence in 1918.

Polish specialists have catalogued its printings, shades and plate flaws in close detail, and a Polish web site, 'Polska Jedynka' ('Poland One'), is devoted to this single stamp, with studies published for its 145th and 150th anniversaries.

The numbers

Issue date

January 1, 1860 (on sale January 2)

Withdrawn

April 1, 1865

Quantity

About 3 million printed in eight batches; 208,515 destroyed

Printing

Letterpress, two colors (blue and rose to carmine), state stamp works, Warsaw

Plate

Two forms of 100 copper galvanotypes, in four blocks of 25

Perforation

Frame perforation, gauge 11½ to 12¾

Paper

White, unwatermarked, from the Jeziorna mill, about 0.06 to 0.08 mm

Gum

Yellowish to brownish, smooth or vertically streaked

Cancellations

Numeral cancels 1 to 332 in concentric circles

Timeline

1. Dec 1857

   Russia issues its first stamp, a 10 kopeck value whose design the Polish stamp will copy.

2. Sep 1, 1858

   The Kingdom of Poland's postal service gains autonomy from Russian control.

3. Dec 14, 1859

   An official circular (dated December 2 in the Julian calendar) announces the new stamp.

4. Jan 1, 1860

   The 10 kopeck stamp is issued; it goes on sale January 2 because the 1st is a Sunday.

5. Apr 1, 1860

   Russian stamps can no longer be used in the Kingdom.

6. Jan 22, 1863

   The January Uprising begins.

7. 1864

   The last printing run of the stamp is completed; the uprising is crushed in June.

8. Apr 1, 1865

   The stamp is withdrawn and replaced by Russian stamps; 208,515 unsold copies are destroyed.

9. 1918

   Poland regains independence; the 1860 stamp remains its only 19th-century issue.

10. Aug 2018

    A mint, never-hinged copy with plate flaws sells at auction in Germany for $40,671.

The world in 1860

• Feb 27, 1860

  Abraham Lincoln gives his Cooper Union speech in New York.

• Apr 3, 1860

  The Pony Express begins carrying mail from Missouri to California.

• May 6, 1860

  Garibaldi sets out on the Expedition of the Thousand to unify Italy.

• Oct 17, 1860

  The first Open Championship in golf is played at Prestwick, Scotland.

• Oct 18, 1860

  British forces begin burning Beijing's Old Summer Palace in the Second Opium War.

• Nov 6, 1860

  Lincoln is elected president of the United States.

• Dec 29, 1860

  Britain launches HMS Warrior, the first ocean-going iron-hulled armored warship.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Poland 1860 'Polish No. 1' (10 Kopeck) is number 57 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (77 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The stamp's official first day, January 1, 1860, was a Sunday, so nobody could buy one until the next day.
• The value 10 appears six times in the design.
• The press that printed it was built by Izrael Abraham Staffel, a watchmaker who also won a gold medal in London for a calculating machine.
• The stamp could not pay postage abroad. Letters leaving the Kingdom and Russia were paid in cash.
• When the stamp was abolished in 1865, 208,515 unsold copies were destroyed.
• Poland issued no other stamp in the 19th century; its next stamps came with independence in 1918.