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You are here: Home / Provisional Postmarks / Plungė 1919

Plungė 1919

January 19, 2010 By Vytautas Doniela

In Lithuania’s postal history, Plungė (Plungiany) makes its first appearance as a horse relay facility in the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A post-and-telegraph station was opened in czarist times, in 1876. During the German occupation in WWI Plungė had no post office of its own and received its mail via the neighbouring Postgebiet Ob.-Ost post office at Telšiai (Telsze).

The first Lithuanian post office in Plungė was opened ca. March 16, 1919, its first postmaster being Jurgis Klimavičius (on duty until early December, then replaced by Vincas Jacevičius in the early days of January 1920.) The first stamps sold were values from the Second Vilnius Issue, esp. the common values of 20 and 30 skatikai, soon supplemented by values from the Second Kaunas Issue, then followed by the Fourth Berlin Issue. As the post office had no formal canceller, its mail was pencancelled to indicate “Plungė” and date. After a few months, this method was improved by using a rectangular cachet inscribed “Plungė” with a line below for numbering. The earliest formal canceller was not supplied until proably first half of 1920 and first appears on stamps of the Fourth Berlin Issue.

Registration of mail was also done by ink, indicating “Plungė” and serial number. At first this sort of marking was done within a hand-drawn rectangular frame, later written in more loosely but adding the capital letter “R”.  Below is shown a rare registered cover franked with a strip of three 20 sk. stamps from the Second Kaunas Issue, one of which has the misprint “aštas” instead of “paštas” (colln. Raimundas Lapas). 

A rare registered cover from Plunge franked with 3x 20sk stamps from the Second Kaunas Issue

The complete article about the post office in Plungė in 1919 by Vytautas Doniela has been published in issue No 238 of the Lithuania Philatelic Society (Chicago) Journal.

Filed Under: Provisional Postmarks Tagged With: Plunge, Postal History

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