Commemorative stamp dies

All-Falcon Sports Festival in Znojmo, 24 August 1919

Commemorative handstamps are used to mark major events, anniversaries and other occasions; the first die preserved by the Postal Museum dates back to 1919. First day covers (FDCs) with cancellations have also been added to the sub-collection since 1947.

The oldest preserved stamp was made on the occasion of the Sports Festival in Znojmo, organized by the Czech sports movement Sokol ( Falcon) on 24 August 1919. The first FDC with an additional print, stamps portraying President Edvard Beneš, and a cancellation appeared on 28 October 1946 as a so-called "ministerial issue". The Ministry of Post Offices sent these FDCs to high government and state officials. The first official FDCs (and the first handstamps whose impressions appear on the FDCs held by the museum) came out on 1 January 1947 in the issue Two-Year Economic Plan. The present sub-collection includes dies that were used in the territory of today's Czech Republic; dies that were used in the territory of today's Slovak Republic were officially handed over to the then Bratislava-based Documentation Centre of the Administration of Postal and Telecommunication Services in 1991.