100 Years Of The Hungarian Table Tennis Association

Magyar Posta is commemorating the centenary of the foundation of the Hungarian Table Tennis Association by issuing a stamp. To mark the centenary, the Association prepared an exciting and interesting series of events spanning the whole of 2024, the release of the commemorative stamp on 20 September 2024 being one of the high points. Forty thousand copies of the special stamp designed by Orsolya Kara were produced by ANY Security Printing Company. The new issue goes on sale at Filaposta, philately specialist services, certain post offices and www.posta.hu on the date of issue.

“Everyone loves playing table tennis, because table tennis can be played anywhere” is the slogan for the centenary year. Hungary’s astonishing table tennis history began earlier than the international one. The centenary of the Association precedes the centenary of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) by two years. In the first 10 to 20 years of the 20th century, ping-pong was regarded as merely a good game: it was debated whether it was a sport at all. Hungarian society had to be convinced of the value as a sport of this excellent pastime which could be played in salons. This was soon achieved due to the victory after victory of Hungarian table tennis players soon after the foundation of the Association. From the 1930s onwards, this superb leisure activity strode towards professionalism. The process whereby Hungarians taught the world to play table tennis has never stopped, and indeed continues to this day.

The commemorative stamp and the accompanying philatelic products present the sport’s equipment and the logo designed to mark the centenary. The central motif of the stamp design depicts two women playing table tennis. The main elements of the commemorative cover are the bats used for the game and the centenary logo. The main element in the imprint of the special postmark on the first day cover is the table tennis bat and the ping-pong ball.