Magyar Posta is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the establishment of an independent Hungarian postal administration by issuing a special miniature sheet with six stamps. Sixty thousand copies of the miniature sheet with six different stamps designed by the graphic artist Eszter Domé were produced by ANY Security Printing Company. The new issue will be available at first day post offices and Filaposta in Hungary from 4 May 2017, but may also be ordered from Magyar Posta’s online store.
Conveying messages has always been an important task and, since the dawn of human history, messengers have played a major role in everyday life and in legends about ancient times. When the Magyar tribes conquered the Carpathian Basin, they brought with them an efficient system of spreading news, which continually adapted to the historic changes over the ensuing centuries while retaining the basic role of conveying messages. As a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, while maintaining the common framework an independent national public institution, the Royal Hungarian Post, was established on 1 May 1867, whose successor, Magyar Posta Zrt., is still operating today.
The history of the Hungarian postal administration and the range of activities it has performed are inherently bound to the historic events over the last one hundred and fifty years, to ever more rapid industrial and technological development, and to the social and economic changes as well as the responses to these.
The miniature sheet marking the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary presents typical postal vehicles spanning this period of time.
The first stamp in the top row shows a horse-drawn parcel delivery cart, which served areas not covered by the railway network. In cities it collected letters and delivered parcels from the start but its use gradually declined until it was finally phased out (in Budapest in 1958).
The Royal Hungarian Post was the first in the world to experiment with motorised mail transport between 1897 and 1900. The result of this was the János Csonka motor tricycle featured in the second stamp. This vehicle was used from 1900 to 1925.
The third stamp depicts postmen setting off on their rounds by Csepel bicycle. The bicycle has been used as a mail transport vehicle, mainly by delivery workers, since the 1890s.
The first stamp in the bottom row presents the travelling post office and a motorcycle. In the wake of the rapid expansion of the railways, from the mid 19th century onwards, the postal service also used this means of transport, conveying large volumes and quantities of mail over long distances by train. The travelling post office, which existed between 1863 and 2004, formed the backbone of the mail transport service. A coach with four axles from the 1930s, which continued in service even after 1945, appears in the stamp. The letter collection duties of the motor tricycle were taken over by motorcycles with a sidecar from 1926. In the foreground of the first stamp in the bottom row there is a 125 cc, Hungarian made Danuvia motorcycle, which was used for the telegram service from the 1960s.
The main motif of the second stamp is the multi-purpose Barkas van, which was part of the fleet from 1961 to 1993. This iconic van was built in the former German Democratic Republic. In the background an aeroplane referring to air mail can be seen.
The third stamp features a Nissan ENV 200 electric vehicle, which entered service in December 2016 to provide mobile post and parcel delivery services. The border of the miniature sheet is a montage of postal emblems, logos, post offices and postal facilities from the last one hundred and fifty years.
