GERMAN EMPIRE
OFFICIAL
POSTCARDS
1881
All 1881 Official postcards are now on this page. Official postcards are cards that were issued by the Reich’s post office, had pre-printed (indicia) stamps and were widely available throughout German towns and cities.
Secondly Printed to Private Order postcards are postcards that were generally issued by entities that were advertising an event or commemorating an anniversary, and also had pre-printed stamps, but were not widely available throughout Germany (most were only available at the event they were commemorating).
Thirdly Other postcards are postcards that fall into the same general category as printed to private order however they do not have pre-printed stamps.
Finally, Miscellaneous postcards is where you will find postcards that do not fit into the first three categories (i.e. they are not official, they do not have pre-printed stamps, and they do not commemorate an event).
Quick Links:
ROHRPOSTKARTE:
RP4 and RP5
MICHEL RP4 and RP5
Inscribed 'DEUTSCHE REICHSPOST | ROHRPOST-KARTE'. These two Rohrpost cards have a 25Rpf small eagle in elipse stamp with a "PFENNIG" inscription. From 1881 (RP4, RP5) three different value stamps were used. These can be recognized by the differences in the "2" in the right ellipse as follows:
TYPE 'A'
TYPE 'B'
TYPE 'C'
Type A: The round head of the '2' begins vertically directly above the left hand edge of the base. The foot line slightly curved with the tail pointing almost straight up, longer then the type 'C'.
Type B: The foot of the '2' is noticeably flater on the bottom and looks to have a slight hook on the right-hand end.
Type C: The rounded head of the '2' protrudes further left, beyond the base of the neck. The foot line is more wavy than the type 'B' with the top edge of the tail pointing upwards, but shorter than the type 'A'.
MICHEL RP4
OFFICIAL ROHRPOSTKARTE
25 PFENNIG
Issued 1881. The same design as the earlier RP2 but now with a different coloured paper, now light rose. The example below has the Type 'B' value stamp.
Click RP4 here for more details.
Michel RP4
25Pf dark brown
25Pf dark brown
FROM MY COLLECTION
MICHEL RP5
OFFICIAL ROHRPOST REPLY KARTE
25 PFENNIG
Issued 1881. The same design as the earlier RP3 but now with a different coloured paper, in this case light rose. Reply card RP5 is more difficult to find than RP4, especially with the answer portion intact, and so prices for all variants of this reply card are higher than the equivalent RP4 by a factor of at least 10.
Click RP5 here for more details.
RP5 TYPE 'A'
FROM MY COLLECTION
