In January of 1919, the newly created government of Poland decreed that the then current Austrian postage stamps, which were valid for postal usage in the southern half of the country, would become invalid on the 21st of January. The available supplies of Austrian stamps were overprinted with a Poczta Polska overprint and these overprinted stamps became the only valid postage on the 21st of January. The quantities of the Austrian postage stamps that were overprinted were small in number and variable. Within months, forgeries of varying degree of competency became readily available in the philatelic market. By 1927 - within 8 years - one expert expressed the opinion that probably at least 60% of the common overprints and at least 90% of the rarer overprints were forgeries.

In 1933 Stanislaus Mikstein wrote the definitive treatise on the background of this issue and the methods of authenticating the overprints. To my knowledge, his methods are still the current accepted means of authenticating these overprints. The overprints were done either by a typographic or a lithographic process. The typographic overprint consists of 3 parts, the word POCZTA, a rhombus, and the word POLSKA, and the typographic assembly was used for the overprinting of sheets of 100 stamps (10 x 10). The lithographic overprint consists of 3 parts, the word POCZTA, an ornament, and the word POLSKA, and the lithographic assembly was used for the overprinting of sheets of 100 stamps (10 x 10) or blocks of 25 stamps (5 x 5). The overprint forms are illustrated below:

Michael E. Melnichak
mikemelni@verizon .net
06/15/2001 Revised 09/11/2005