Sale of Used Stamps

The German Postal Service retained the ownership of all stamps that had been used to pay for Telegrammes, Money Orders and especially Postal Parcels, where the stamps had been attached to tags. These stamps were then collated at the main post offices, diespatches to the postal msuem for sifting and from time to time sold off to stamp dealers, either directly, or through public auctions. [4] An Auction on 9 December 1911 offered stamps from many German colonies for sale, but the three Micronesian colonies of the Carolines, the Marianas and the Marshall Islands were absent. The stamps offered from the other colonies were all Yacht and Germania-type stamps.[5]

1916 and 1919 Prints

During World War I the German Reichpost continued to print stamps continued its programme of replacing the standard Yacht issues with stamps on water-marked paper--even though the colonies had already been largely lost as part of WWI. Most stamps never reached the colonies, but were available for sale in Berlin. Even after the war, when Germany had capitulated and the colonies were lost, stamps and postcards were printed. The entire stamp stock was disposed to dealers and to private individiuals both by public auction, and by sale by tender for lots.

An example of such a sale by tender document can be found here. The document reproduced is a tender document for surplus stamp and postal stationary stock from the German Caroline Islands. Note that the prices reflect the high level of inflation already occurring in Germany at the time.