Basel_Dove

Basel Dove

Basel Dove

Swiss postage stamp, world's first tricolor stamp


The Basel Dove (Basel German: Basler Dybli, German: Basler Taube) is a notable stamp issued by the Swiss canton of Basel on 1 July 1845[1] with a value of 2½-rappen. It was the first tricolor stamp in the world and the only postage stamp issued by Basel. At the time each canton was responsible for its own postal service. There were no uniform postal rates for Switzerland until after the establishment of a countrywide postal service on 1 January 1849. The only other cantons to issue their own stamps were Zürich and Geneva.

Quick Facts Country of production, Location of production ...

The stamp, designed by the architect Melchior Berri, featured a white embossed dove carrying a letter in its beak, and was inscribed "STADT POST BASEL". The stamp is printed in black, crimson and blue, making it the world's first tri-coloured stamp.[1] It was valid for use until 30 September 1854, by which time 41,480 stamps had been printed.[2]

See also


References

  1. Hertsch, Max. Famous Stamps of the World. Berne: Hallwag Ltd., 1968, p.12.

Further reading

  • Bach, Jean-Paul; Winterstein, Felix (1995). Basler Taube (in German). Reinach: Multipress. ISBN 3952083720.

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Basel_Dove, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.