A Rare and Unusual Petroleum Stamp — the German Reich General Gouvernement Stamp of 1944

© Peter A. Scholle, 2000

Introduction
One of the most unusual petroleum-related stamps of the world, and also one of the scarcest, was printed, but never officially released, for the German Reich's General Gouvernement (the Nazi-era occupation goverment of Poland). It was part of a four-stamp set that included 6, 12, 24 and 40-grozy (groschen) denominations depicting rural scenes (an oil field, peasants on a wagon, a peasant couple, and a Ukrainian stave church respectively). The 6-gr stamp, shown above, depicts part of the Boryslaw oil field, which lies well east of Krakov in the province of Galicia. This region produced oil since the 1860's and has, at various times during the oil-producing era, been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Poland, Germany, the U.S.S.R. and the western Ukraine. The Boryslaw field was depicted previously on several imprinted postal cards issued by independent Poland just prior to the German invasion (PHOTO).

Stamp Production History
The 6-gr petro-stamp specifically shows one of the common wood-enclosed derricks of the area with its adjacent wooden shed housing pumping machinery. Several simpler tripod frames for cable-tool drilling are also visible in both the foreground and background. This simple, yet well-balanced design was produced by Professor Erwin Puchinger (1876-1944). Puchinger was a a professor in Vienna at "Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt" at the time this stamp was designed; his repertoire included landscapes as well as interior design and jewelry. The stamp he designed was engraved in early 1944 by a noted German-born artist, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Seizinger (one of the world's greatest stamp engravers who was himself depicted on a 1983 Czechoslovakian stamp, shown below).

Both Puchinger and Seizinger worked on this project for the Reichsdruckerei (Reich's Printing Office) in Vienna, the organization responsible for creation and printing of the stamps, although Seizinger lived and worked mainly in Zagreb (Croatia) during the war. If you can read German and are interested in learning more about the engraver and the many superb stamps that he produced, you can enjoy some beautiful web pages devoted entirely to Seizinger.

Several proofs of the Boryslaw oil field stamp have appeared in recent decades that shed some light on its production. Most of these proofs probably were "liberated" in Vienna at the end of the war, some have come directly from the estate of Karl Seizinger, and a number of additional proofs remain in the collections of the printing house Enschede & Sons in Haarlem (The Netherlands) where they were sent by Seitzinger as part of an application portfolio for an engraver's job that he eventually obtained. The first of these (PHOTO) shows a deep reddish plate pressing (non-sunken) of the master die for this stamp. Although undated, this probably represents the earliest proof that I know about. The steel- or copperplate line engraving is already complete here, but it may have been unhardened at this stage. Proof pulls were made from the die in several colors on relatively thick and ungummed paper, perhaps to aid in the selection of the printing color for the stamp. Presentation proofs also were made at this stage, and they combined the individual colors of the early die proofs. At least two different presentation proof varieties are known and one is illustrated here (PHOTO). Both consist of thick cardboard or artboard backing onto which four or five different-colored die proofs were pasted and then covered with artist's mat board with appropriate cut openings. Both also have a thinner paper cover that has been folded back in the illustrations. In the case illustrated here, four color proofs were used; in the version depicted by John Slater in his 1981 article (see citation below) an additional violet-brown color was used. Both were signed by the engraver and both carry an original penciled date notation of 2 May 1944. Although the colored die proofs incorporated into these pieces may have been used to select print colors, the great care taken to mount and frame these proofs in their folders indicates that these were ultimately designed as presentation pieces rather than working models. Indeed, the five-proof version ended up in the estate of the engraver. The major importance of these proofs is in date of 2 May 1944 marked on them, for it gives an idea of the date on or before which the engraved design had been accepted and production processes could begin.

At an unknown time in the production schedule another interesting item was created (PHOTO). It is an essay that incorporates the approved Boryslaw oil field vignette design with a series of four nested black border frames. It is printed on gummed paper and is fully perforated. Its purpose is not known to me but it may have been created simply to test frame designs.

The next set of die proofs that have been recorded were used to fine-tune the brownish print color. These trial-color die proofs, numbered "2" (PHOTO) and "4" (PHOTO), show the second and fourth brown color mixes in the series. Both of these sunken die proofs include penciled designations of the specific ink colors that were mixed and used for these press pulls. Both proofs were made on thin, gummed paper comparable to that used for the final stamps, perhaps to see exactly how the inks would look on the actual stamp paper. Finally, both have a stamped date of 10 May 1944. That date is interesting because supposedly May 10th is the date on which the stamp was actually printed. That can mean one of three things (in order or probability?): 1) the date on the proofs is a target date for printing rather than the date on which the proofs were made; 2) the recorded printing date for the stamps is later than that noted in the Michel catalog; or 3) the proofs were created on the very same day as the stamp printing.

After approval of the master die and frame designs, and quite likely prior to the creation of the trial color die proofs discussed in the previous paragraph, printing plates were created. The stamp was printed from plates consisting of four panes of 100 stamps each with gutters separating the individual panes. Printing was by "intaglio" ("line engraved") methods on a rotary press (also termed rotogravure). The stamp was printed on gummed paper and was comb-perforated.

It is interesting that once the plates were created, a series of plate proofs were printed in at least four different trial colors — red, blue, dark green, and yellow (PHOTO). If die proofs had long before been created in most of these colors (as in the presentation folder) and other die proofs had been generated to finalize the shade of brown to be used, why produce multicolored trial-color sheet proofs? A final look at what the colors looked like in sheet form? It remains one of a large number of unanswered questions about this stamp. Curiously the green stamp is known only on ungummed paper whereas the others are all on gummed paper; the yellow versions are all misperforated whereas the rest are correctly perforated.

The greatest mysteries about this stamp revolved around the post-production period. John Slater has already speculated on some of the reasons why the stamp was never released despite the fact that Germany continued to control large areas of Poland through much of 1944 (including Warsaw which did not fall to the Russians until January 1945). However, by the time this stamp was printed, the Russians had penetrated into Poland and were continuing to advance relentlessly. By early June, the D-day invasion of Normandy had taken place. Fuel supplies for the war effort were precariously low and transportation was focused entirely on bring troops and supplies to both the eastern and western fronts. It does not seem too surprising, then, that the distribution of postage stamps from Vienna to Poland was not a high priority, particularly when sufficient stocks already existed in Poland for wartime needs.

The final event in the history of this stamp occurred in the days close to or just after the end of World War II. Sometime during the confusion and chaos of this period of
Allied invasion and occupation, someone looted the offices of the Government Printing plant in Vienna and "liberated" the printed stamps, proofs and perhaps even the printing plates. Thus, neither the printed stamps nor the proofs have come onto the philatelic market are entirely "legitimate" (although the stamp set is listed by the Michel catalog). The high (and growing) prices that these stamps and proofs have realized as they reached the market, in substantial numbers from the 1970's onward, have certainly made the "liberation" a profitable undertaking for someone. Still, the episode has certainly added a colorful and mysterious chapter to the story of petroleum stamp production!

Acknowledgment:

My thanks to those who provided information and illustrations of this mostly unique material. I hope that if you find errors of fact or omissions, or if you simply want to discuss or trade petro-stamps, you will contact me at: scholle1@nmt.edu

This write-up benefitted enormously from an excellent 2-page article by John Slater (343), titled "The Poland General Government Petro-Issue of 1944". It appeared in the Autumn 1981 Petro-Philatelist (Whole No. 14), p. 4-5.

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Last revised: 11 December 2001