Magyar Posta is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Count Gyula Andrássy by issuing a special stamp. Forty thousand copies of the new issue designed by the graphic artist Barnabás Baticz were produced by ANY Security Printing Company. The new stamp will be available at first day post offices and Filaposta in Hungary from 3 March 2023, but may also be ordered from Magyar Posta’s online store.
Count Gyula Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka (1823–1890) was a Hungarian statesman from the aristocratic Andrássy family.
As prime minister of the Kingdom of Hungary between 1867 and 1871, he is credited with playing a major part in the formation of the independent modern Hungarian
government structure within the dualist state of Austria-Hungary. He played a prominent role in the creation of the Croatian-Hungarian Settlement of 1868 and the adoption of the Nationality Act as well as in the establishment of the independent Hungarian Defence Forces. Under his premiership, the State Audit Office was established, public administration and the judiciary were separated, and the Frontier Regions were demilitarised.
Between 1871 and 1879 he served as the common foreign minister of the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy, and for a while he also oversaw the common finances. During his tenure of this office, he altered the course of the Monarchy’s foreign policy hitherto, ending the country’s isolation and bringing it closer to the German Empire, the Russian Empire and Italy. His most notable achievement as foreign minister was the Congress of Berlin in 1878.
He is commemorated by numerous public statues, plaques, institutions, the Gyula Andrássy Award named after him and Andrássy Avenue in Budapest.
The design of the stamp commemorating the bicentenary of the birth of Count Gyula Andrássy features a painting by Kornél Spányik, while the commemorative first day cover shows a photograph by Antal Simonyi from the collection of the Hungarian National Museum. The imprint of the special postmark on the commemorative first day cover uses the signature of Count Gyula Andrássy.
