Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

Can anyone help me with these French cinderella's / charity stamps? I found them in an old French collection I recently bought. They look just like Y&T 465 (1940), and seem to be produced in the same way. The inscription says "pour nous victimes de la guerre" (for our war victims). They are "coins datés" (sheet corners with print dates). Two are printed in April 1940, the other one in August 1946.

Where these printed by the official stamp printer?
Where were these sold? Who issued them?
Are there more? What are they worth (if anything)?
What's the story behind these?







EDIT: I found a couple of letters on auction sites that includes these vignettes, but no further information on them.
Here is one that shows one of the vignettes and the original stamp they seem to be designed from.




Thanks! Hendriks

Some more info: by looking at the stamp date on the letter, it seems that the green vignette was not printed in 1946, but in 1940 as well. The number on my block of four is probably not the date, but another number (sheet number or something).

The blue one says "deux francs" (2 francs), the brown purple one "cinq francs" (5 francs), and the green one "dix francs" (10 francs). That is quite a lot, if you consider that 1 franc was enough to send the letter. Add to that the extra two francs they wanted for the stamp (1+2 francs), and the person paid 13 francs where 1 franc would have been enough.

I looked up some dates on wikipedia, and these have been printed while the battle for France had started (May 10th, 1940, invasion of Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg), but not been concluded (France asked for an armistice on June 17th). There were probably a lot of wounded soldiers at that time.

The inscription at the top is "Cotisation Volontaire" which translates as "Voluntary Contribution".

The bottom corners have the letters "PTT", which would indicate they were issued by the Postal Authority ("Postes, Telegrams et Telecommunications" or something similar).

So, charity labels to raise funds possibily for employees of the Post Office injured in the fighting.

Another update, after I have been collecting more information

I have found this when someone asked what kind of stamp this is.



In my (limited) French this translates to: It's a cinderella used for charity with the money going to the "national aid committee from the PTT" (the French post). It was printed by the official stamp printer in Paris. Six months later, in November 1940, it was printed with the word POSTES, thereby becoming a real stamp (Y&T 465).

I looked up the "Comité national d'assistance aux P.T.T. victimes de la guerre". And found this



It says (roughly translated): "Don't forget that ... widows, orphans, parents, prisoners of war, victims of the corporation will be supported by your National Committee. Victims of war depend on your generosity."

I also found this auction going for 7 euro's, so it seems there are more and that's what they are worth.



I will be buying these others and adding them to my collection. I hope this has helped someone with the identification of these labels.

I'm still interested in anyone who has anything to say about these labels of course. Also if you know there were more "vignettes de bienfaisance" from that period with different designs.

Hendriks,

Excellent translation and most useful information, thank you! These are nicely engraved stamps (cinderellas). Thank you for sharing.

Best,
Joel.