Empire - Telegraph stamps

The demise of Austrian Telegraph stamps was prompted by several considerations : fears of re-use of stamps by telegraph clerks, complications of accounting, and the cost of printing the engraved stamps. By 1877 the "sister" Hungarian Telegraph office had already decided to withdraw their telegraph stamps. On 1st April 1879, a new Austrian tariff charged telegram at so much per word, against the former basic rate of 50kr for 20 words. Applying the right stamps for the new rates would become excessively complicated. So, from 1st April, telegraph fees were collected in cash for the new "per word" rate. Although stamped telegraph forms continued to be used up for several years, adhesive telegraph stamps became invalid from that date. Unused telegraph stamps in the hands of the public could still be handed in for refund at local offices until 30th April, and at the central office until 30th September 1879. Special forms continued in production, showing a space where regular postage stamps could be affixed to pay telegram charges.

Even in the 1880s, the authorities recognised the importance of the collector market. Roughly 1.27 million telegraph stamps remained in government offices. From 1884, a portion of mint stamps were sold to dealers at face value. Also offered were the stamps to be overprinted SPECIMEN as a form of cancellation, at the rate of 3 Gulden per 1000 stamps. In this case, the stamps were supplied in mixed quantities of the different face values, depending on availability of stocks, rather than as multiples of full sets. Thus, certain SPECIMEN values are scarcer than others. The SPECIMEN cancel was applied only to meet individual orders from dealers. Two styles exist, placed high, or centrally (the latter are scarcer). Finally, stocks that could not be sold to dealers were eventually destroyed.