Coffee Hag albums
Encyclopedia
The Coffee Hag albums were published in the early 20th century by the Kaffee Handelsgesellschaft AG (Kaffee HAG, Coffee Hag
) in Bremen
, Germany
, starting with heraldic
stamps and collector's albums.
The stamps and books were the initiative of the Die Brücke
association. This was an initiative of Emperor Wilhelm II to make an archive of published material. At the same time the association developed standard sizes for publishing material. To promote their activities and their new standards, they encouraged companies to publish material in their standards. The Kaffee Hag company was one of the companies that agreed to do so. Hence the stamps are published in the so-called Weltformat V der Brücke (or 4 x 5,66 cm), which is also printed on the back of the stamps. The albums were published in the Weltformat IX (16 x 22.6 cm). Only on the German and Swiss stamps there was the reference to the Weltformat.
The association went bankrupt in 1913 and abolished in 1914, but the size of the stamps remained the same for all the albums.
The company hired the famous artist Otto Hupp
to design the stamps. Otto Hupp already had published several well known volumes on German civic heraldry since the 1890s.
The albums became a success in Germany and the company exported the idea to the other European countries in which the company operated.
In the 1920s the series were again published in Switzerland and Germany, followed by other countries. The following albums have been published:
In total around 125 different albums were published between 1914-1955. Albums for the Baltic states, Italy as well as a second album for Poland and an 11th for Germany were planned, but never issued. The French series stopped after 6 albums of the planned 40. More than 12500 different stamps were issued, making it the largest heraldic publication of the 20th century.
The image stamps were collected using coupons in the coffee packages, not only from Hag, but sometimes in packagesof other companies as well. The stamps were issued in sheets, but the sizes of the sheets as well as the distribution was organised differently in each country.
The albums were printed by M. Weissenbruch NV in Brussels. The images and texts were made in the studio of Van der Laars in the Netherlands. The same studio also made the images and texts for the Dutch albums. The images were of the same size as the images of the other countries (4x5.5 cm).
The stamps are numbered by province and issued arbitrarily, not alphabetically as in most other countries. This system is identical to the Dutch albums. The albums were issued from 1931 onwards. The series were not issued completely by province, but the sheets were issued in batches consisting of parts of multiple provinces. The sheets and stamps were reprinted approximately halfway completion. This has resulted in two different editions of the series, as the second edition has a slightly different lay-out and many errors were corrected. The main texts are identical. For both languages two editions exist.
The Dutch and French texts are near-identical for the arms and descriptions. The main difference is in the (short) additional text, which was issued after the Luxembourg province pages. Unlike the albums from most other countries, the Belgian albums have no separate chapters or texts on coffee, the company or the health effects of coffee.
In addition the albums also contained a 17-page introduction to heraldry, with numerous examples from the Belgian towns. These were referred to by their numbers. The second edition has the same text, but the numbers and examples have been updated with the newer stamps. The date on both texts, however, is February 1930. The text was written by Fidèle-Gabriel, a priest who also illustrated the book on the heraldry of Belgian provinces (issued in 1919 Dutch and in 1921 in French and written by E. Gevaert).
The number of official stamps is 782, including variations 902. For the content of the albums see here
The book contains 125 arms, and besides the arms of the city and towns, it also contains images of personal arms, house mark
s, the seals of the city of Danzig and flags. As the territory of Danzig was very small, these additions were necessary for a complete album. Several later additions were planned, and some space was left for these in the album, but these were never issued.
For the content of the album see here.
The 7th album for Silezia was never issued, the stamps were partially issued.
The old series consisted of 703 images and some variations
Author was Prof. Otto Hupp
.
The new (second) series was published as Deutsche Ortswappen (Neue Reihe) between 1927 and 1938. There are several differences as compared with the old series issued between 1913-1918.
The albums were issued as loose sheets, which could be bound in either 10 small albums, or in four large albums. Each page contained 9 arms. The content of the 10 albums was described, still people often filled the albums at random or by state, which means that each album may contain different pages.
The four large albums were not numbered and could be used at will.
The arms were published by province/state, but the images of the different provinces were not issued at the same time, some parts were issued years after the first half of the series.
The official number of images was 2811, but including variations around 3010 stamps are known.
For the content of the albums see here.
The author is also not known, although Poul Bredo Grandjean has been mentioned as author.
Poul Bredo Grandjean published two other heraldic books between 1920–40 and was considered the most esteemed heraldist of the country in those days.
The album contains only the arms of towns. The stamps were issued in 8 sheets of 18 stamps each, with an additional 5 stamps with advertising.
For the content of the albums see here.
The first two albums were issued both as loose sheets as well as bound. In the first album only some provinces were displayed, but all the regional arms were included. Albums II-IV included the arms of the other regions and their provinces. Albums V and VI show all the municipal arms of the Alsace region, the first region in the alphabet.
The result of the change from loose sheets to albums is that the regional pages are duplicated, as are the arms of the principal cities in the two provinces of the Alsace
Region (Bas-Rhin
and Haut-Rhin
). Of the 1363 images, 62 are duplicated.
The official number of images was 1363, but including variations around 2000 stamps are known.
For the content of the albums see here.
The British album was published in Westminster
(London
) by Abbey Press Ltd. The author is not known, but Major Thomas Shepard has often been mentioned as the author.
The album contains 236 stamps with images, which are numbered separately in each section. The album is divided in chapters per Region, with the Regional arms on a separate page, followed by, alphabetically, the other towns and cities in the Region. The Regions are: London, England
, Scotland
, Wales
, Ireland
and Northern Ireland
. Besides the region, the stamps also mention the county in which the town is situated.
For the content of the albums see here.
The album was published by Kava Hag, Zagreb and printed by Lit. Tipografija D.D. Zagreb
. The authors were Emilij Laszowski and Rudolf Horvat.
The album contains 256 stamps with images, which are numbered without breaks from 1 (national arms) until 256 Žužemberg. The album is divided in 3 chapters; the first on the National and Royal arms, followed by some historical territorial arms. The second deals with provincial arms and the third (and largest) part with the town arms.
For the content of the album see here.
The first series was issued as "Nederlandsche Gemeentewapens" between 1925 and 1928. These series only showed the municipal arms in the Netherlands and the Netherlands East Indies (present Indonesia
, but also including the arms of Surinam in South America). For the stamp-pages hardcover albums or a cardboard box were available. The cover showed the small National Arms. The side showed the text Nederlandsche Gemeentewapens, and the back advertising for the company. The total collection consisted of 1027 stamps and generally three hardcover albums were needed.
The second series were issued between 1931 and 1935 as Nederlandsche Heraldiek and showed the arms of new or changed municipal arms, new and changed arms in Netherlands East Indies, the arms of the water boards, the officially registered arms of Houses, Castles, Estates and similar, the arms of former municipalities and two series of personal arms. These personal arms were of important Dutch and foreign families and persons during the 80-years war of independence (1568–1648) of the Netherlands against Spain. The total number of arms issued was 841.
For the content of the albums see here.
in 1933. Author was Hallvard Trætteberg
. Hallvard Trætteberg (1898–1987) was within the State Archives responsible for heraldry issues for several decades. He wrote numerous articles on heraldry, both personal as non-personal (civic and religious) heraldry in Norway.
The album is unique among the Scandinavian series, as it also contains the arms of Norwegian noble families, both historical and contemporary. It also contains a larger introduction to heraldry as compared to the other two albums. Like the Danish album it also contains a section on the production of coffee.
The stamps were issued in 8 sheets of 18 stamps each, with an additional 3 stamps with advertising on the last sheet.
For the content of the album see here.
by the Verlag der Deutschen Vereins-Druckerei A.G. The author was F. Hasslinger.
Two different versions of the album were published; a small edition and a luxury edition. The luxury edition came in a cardboard cage and had one additional page with the Austrian National arms.
The album contains 450 (luxury) images, which are numbered from 1 to 449. The national arms has no number. The album is divided in chapters per State, with the State arms on a separate page, followed by the capital city and, alphabetically, the other towns and cities in the State. The exception is the State of Burgenland
, from which no town arms were published.
For the content of the album see here.
The album is mentioned as part one (Zeszyt I). More issues were planned with personal arms, but never published. Part one contains 284 arms of towns, (historical) districts, dioceses etc., but no personal arms.
The arms were supplied in 8 sheets of 36 stamps each. Four of these were used for advertising. The back of the stamps contained no texts.
For the content of the album see here.
The Czechoslovak album was published by Grafických Umĕlechkých Závodů v. Neubert a synové, Praha-Smíchov (Graphischen Kunstanstalten v. Neubert und Söhne, Prag-Smíchov). The authors were Vilém Klein (Wilhelm Klein) and Anton Morávek.
The whole album is written in both Czech
and German. The album has been published in a simple and a luxury edition. The luxury edition has a hard-cover in colour and a cardboard case. The luxury edition also has 6 more pages with the regional arms. The album is published as Part 1, but a second part was never published.
The album contains 180 stamps with images, which are numbered separately in each section. The album is divided in chapters per Region, with the Regional arms on a separate page, followed by again the Regional arms, the regional capital and, alphabetically, the other towns and cities in the Region. The Regions are: Bohemia
, Moravia
, Silesia
, Slovakia
and Carpathorussia (sometimes called Ruthenia
).
For the content of the album see here.
. The author is Friherre Harald Gustav Fleetwood (1879–1960). Fleetwood was the State Herald of Sweden from 1931–1965 and author of many heraldic papers.
The album contains only the arms of provinces and towns. The stamps were issued in 8 sheets of 18 stamps each, with an additional 5 stamps with advertising. As far as is known there have been no plans to issue a second album with personal arms.
For the content of the album see here.
The series were started in 1911 with the first album with Kantons und Stadtwappen (arms of Canton
s and cities), numbered 1-80. This album was printed at three different locations (München, Laupen
and an unmarked issue) with the same images, but the stamps differed slightly in design. The 2nd album with arms of towns and villages (Stadt-und Dorfgemeinden, numbered 81-144) was also issued at the same time and same locations. The third album (images 145-288) was issued only at two locations in 1922. In 1923 the fourth album, named Stadt-und Dorfgemeinden (Serie C) was issued, and the numbering was started again with 1-48.
The series was then discontinued in the same style and redesigned. In 1926 the new series were started, in which not only town arms, but also personal and other arms were planned. The series started again with album 4, which has the same towns as the old series number 4, but now in a different design of album and images. Later albums 5-18 were issued in more or less the same style. Albums 4 and 5 were later combined to album 4/5, which, in a later issue, was again renamed album 5. In the 1950s the lay-out was changed again, and all albums (5-18) were issued with the new design, and an album 19 was added. Before WWII also two albums with arms of monasteries, dioceses and other religious arms were issued as numbers 1 and 2. An album 3 was never issued in the new series.
To complicate matters, the albums were also continuously revised. Arms were changed and updated due to recent grants, and the number of inhabitants was adjusted. In a few cases towns were replaced by other towns. This all resulted in at least 76 different albums.
For the content of the album see here.
Café HAG
Café HAG is a worldwide brand of decaffeinated coffee owned by U.S. multinational Kraft Foods.The brand originated in Bremen in Germany in 1906 and took its name from the company title Kaffee Handels-Aktien-Gesellschaft, or Kaffee HAG for short....
) in Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, starting with heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
stamps and collector's albums.
The stamps and books were the initiative of the Die Brücke
Die Brücke (institute)
Die Brücke was an institute founded in Munich, Germany in 1911. The official name was ' .-Description:Die Brücke was founded by Emperor Wilhelm II...
association. This was an initiative of Emperor Wilhelm II to make an archive of published material. At the same time the association developed standard sizes for publishing material. To promote their activities and their new standards, they encouraged companies to publish material in their standards. The Kaffee Hag company was one of the companies that agreed to do so. Hence the stamps are published in the so-called Weltformat V der Brücke (or 4 x 5,66 cm), which is also printed on the back of the stamps. The albums were published in the Weltformat IX (16 x 22.6 cm). Only on the German and Swiss stamps there was the reference to the Weltformat.
The association went bankrupt in 1913 and abolished in 1914, but the size of the stamps remained the same for all the albums.
The company hired the famous artist Otto Hupp
Otto Hupp
Otto Hupp was a German graphical artist. His main working area was heraldry, yet he also worked as a typeface designer, creating commercial symbols and metal works....
to design the stamps. Otto Hupp already had published several well known volumes on German civic heraldry since the 1890s.
The albums became a success in Germany and the company exported the idea to the other European countries in which the company operated.
The albums
Two series, Germany and Switzerland, were started before World War I and were never finished. In the 1920s and 1930s the second series of these countries as well as the other countries were launched. In each country different heraldic artists were used to write the albums and draw the images.In the 1920s the series were again published in Switzerland and Germany, followed by other countries. The following albums have been published:
- Germany 1st series: 6 albums, plus a series of stamps for SilesiaSilesiaSilesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
, but no album Silezia - Switzerland old series: 4 albums
- Germany new series: 10 albums, the 11th album (German-Austria) was planned, but not issued
- Switzerland new series : 19 albums, with multiple reprints. More than 60 albums are known
- NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
: 2 albums, loose sheets with multiple storage options - BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
: 6 albums, 3 Dutch and 3 French albums (identical) - PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
: 1 album, 2nd album planned, but not issued - Danzig: 1 album
- NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
: 1 album and one reprint - SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
: 1 album - DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
: 1 album - YugoslaviaYugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
: 1 album - also contains rare stamps from pre-WWII Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia - AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
: 1 album, with additional luxury edition - CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
: 1 album, with additional luxury edition - EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
/IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
: 1 album - FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(as Café SankaSankaSanka is a brand of instant decaffeinated coffee, sold around the world, and was one of the earliest decaffeinated varieties. Sanka is distributed in the United States by Kraft Foods.-History:...
): 6 albums (of 40 planned)
In total around 125 different albums were published between 1914-1955. Albums for the Baltic states, Italy as well as a second album for Poland and an 11th for Germany were planned, but never issued. The French series stopped after 6 albums of the planned 40. More than 12500 different stamps were issued, making it the largest heraldic publication of the 20th century.
The image stamps were collected using coupons in the coffee packages, not only from Hag, but sometimes in packagesof other companies as well. The stamps were issued in sheets, but the sizes of the sheets as well as the distribution was organised differently in each country.
Belgium and Luxembourg
The Belgian Coffee Hag albums are unique, as they are issued in two languages, Dutch ("Wapens van het Koninkrijk België en het Groothertogdom Luxemburg")and French ("Armorial du Royaume de Belgique en du Grand Duché de Luxembourg"). The series of Switzerland and Czechoslovakia are also issued in two languages, but the albums themselves are bilingual; for Belgium two separate series in either language were issued. Each series consisted of three small albums, with loose sheets. Per sheet 9 arms were shown, with the description and some background on the back of the sheet.The albums were printed by M. Weissenbruch NV in Brussels. The images and texts were made in the studio of Van der Laars in the Netherlands. The same studio also made the images and texts for the Dutch albums. The images were of the same size as the images of the other countries (4x5.5 cm).
The stamps are numbered by province and issued arbitrarily, not alphabetically as in most other countries. This system is identical to the Dutch albums. The albums were issued from 1931 onwards. The series were not issued completely by province, but the sheets were issued in batches consisting of parts of multiple provinces. The sheets and stamps were reprinted approximately halfway completion. This has resulted in two different editions of the series, as the second edition has a slightly different lay-out and many errors were corrected. The main texts are identical. For both languages two editions exist.
The Dutch and French texts are near-identical for the arms and descriptions. The main difference is in the (short) additional text, which was issued after the Luxembourg province pages. Unlike the albums from most other countries, the Belgian albums have no separate chapters or texts on coffee, the company or the health effects of coffee.
In addition the albums also contained a 17-page introduction to heraldry, with numerous examples from the Belgian towns. These were referred to by their numbers. The second edition has the same text, but the numbers and examples have been updated with the newer stamps. The date on both texts, however, is February 1930. The text was written by Fidèle-Gabriel, a priest who also illustrated the book on the heraldry of Belgian provinces (issued in 1919 Dutch and in 1921 in French and written by E. Gevaert).
The number of official stamps is 782, including variations 902. For the content of the albums see here
Danzig
The album was issued in 1930 by Kaffee Hag, Danzig. Author was Dr. Hubertus Schwarz, a senator for the city council of Danzig. However, there are reasons to suspect that F. W. Burau is the real designer of the images.The book contains 125 arms, and besides the arms of the city and towns, it also contains images of personal arms, house mark
House mark
A House mark is a graphical figure used as a mark of recognition, that consists of simple lines with no fixed colors. A house mark is similar in appearance to pictograms and many logos....
s, the seals of the city of Danzig and flags. As the territory of Danzig was very small, these additions were necessary for a complete album. Several later additions were planned, and some space was left for these in the album, but these were never issued.
For the content of the album see here.
Germany
The German issue is the largest series. The oldest series were titled 'Die Deutsche Ortswappen', but this title doid not appear on the albums itself. The series consisted of the following albums:- Die Wappen des Königsreichs PreussenPrussiaPrussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
, Provinz OstpreussenEast PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
(3 reprints) - idem, Provinz WestpreussenWest PrussiaWest Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773–1824 and 1878–1919/20 which was created out of the earlier Polish province of Royal Prussia...
(2 reprints) - idem, Provinz BrandenburgBrandenburgBrandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
(1 reprint) - Die Wappen des Königsreichs BayernBavariaBavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, Ober-und Niederbayern (1 reprint) - Die Wappen des Königsreichs PreussenPrussiaPrussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
, Provinz Pommern - idem, Provinz PosenProvince of PosenThe Province of Posen was a province of Prussia from 1848–1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The area was about 29,000 km2....
The 7th album for Silezia was never issued, the stamps were partially issued.
The old series consisted of 703 images and some variations
Author was Prof. Otto Hupp
Otto Hupp
Otto Hupp was a German graphical artist. His main working area was heraldry, yet he also worked as a typeface designer, creating commercial symbols and metal works....
.
The new (second) series was published as Deutsche Ortswappen (Neue Reihe) between 1927 and 1938. There are several differences as compared with the old series issued between 1913-1918.
The albums were issued as loose sheets, which could be bound in either 10 small albums, or in four large albums. Each page contained 9 arms. The content of the 10 albums was described, still people often filled the albums at random or by state, which means that each album may contain different pages.
The four large albums were not numbered and could be used at will.
The arms were published by province/state, but the images of the different provinces were not issued at the same time, some parts were issued years after the first half of the series.
The official number of images was 2811, but including variations around 3010 stamps are known.
For the content of the albums see here.
Denmark
The book was issued by Kaffe Hag a/s in Copenhagen. It is not sure when it was issued. Due to the similar text in the back of the album as in the Norwegian album, it is most likely published around the same time in the early 1930s. In a brochure for the German albums from 1935 it is mentioned that the book on Denmark was already published. It was printed at the Nordlundes Bogtrykkeri in Copenhagen.The author is also not known, although Poul Bredo Grandjean has been mentioned as author.
Poul Bredo Grandjean published two other heraldic books between 1920–40 and was considered the most esteemed heraldist of the country in those days.
The album contains only the arms of towns. The stamps were issued in 8 sheets of 18 stamps each, with an additional 5 stamps with advertising.
For the content of the albums see here.
France
The album series La France Héraldique has a complicated history. Initially the series were intended to be issued as loose sheets, to be bound in albums per region. Therefore initially the album sheets with the arms and description of the region were issued. This was to be followed by one sheet with the nine most important cities of each province (département) within the region. However, this was not completed as such, only a limited number of provinces was actually published.. Finally per province all municipal arms were to be published. However, this scheme was never completed. There were 40 different albums planned, but only 6 were issued.The first two albums were issued both as loose sheets as well as bound. In the first album only some provinces were displayed, but all the regional arms were included. Albums II-IV included the arms of the other regions and their provinces. Albums V and VI show all the municipal arms of the Alsace region, the first region in the alphabet.
The result of the change from loose sheets to albums is that the regional pages are duplicated, as are the arms of the principal cities in the two provinces of the Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
Region (Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace region, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.- History :...
and Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin
Haut-Rhin is a département of the Alsace region of France, named after the Rhine river. Its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less populated of the two departements of Alsace, although is still densely populated compared to the rest of France.-Subdivisions:The department...
). Of the 1363 images, 62 are duplicated.
The official number of images was 1363, but including variations around 2000 stamps are known.
For the content of the albums see here.
Britain
The album "Arms of cities and towns of the British Isles" was issued around 1930.The British album was published in Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
(London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) by Abbey Press Ltd. The author is not known, but Major Thomas Shepard has often been mentioned as the author.
The album contains 236 stamps with images, which are numbered separately in each section. The album is divided in chapters per Region, with the Regional arms on a separate page, followed by, alphabetically, the other towns and cities in the Region. The Regions are: London, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. Besides the region, the stamps also mention the county in which the town is situated.
For the content of the albums see here.
Yugoslavia
The album "Grbovi Jugoslavija" was issued around 1930.The album was published by Kava Hag, Zagreb and printed by Lit. Tipografija D.D. Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
. The authors were Emilij Laszowski and Rudolf Horvat.
The album contains 256 stamps with images, which are numbered without breaks from 1 (national arms) until 256 Žužemberg. The album is divided in 3 chapters; the first on the National and Royal arms, followed by some historical territorial arms. The second deals with provincial arms and the third (and largest) part with the town arms.
For the content of the album see here.
The Netherlands
The Dutch albums were issued in two series.The first series was issued as "Nederlandsche Gemeentewapens" between 1925 and 1928. These series only showed the municipal arms in the Netherlands and the Netherlands East Indies (present Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, but also including the arms of Surinam in South America). For the stamp-pages hardcover albums or a cardboard box were available. The cover showed the small National Arms. The side showed the text Nederlandsche Gemeentewapens, and the back advertising for the company. The total collection consisted of 1027 stamps and generally three hardcover albums were needed.
The second series were issued between 1931 and 1935 as Nederlandsche Heraldiek and showed the arms of new or changed municipal arms, new and changed arms in Netherlands East Indies, the arms of the water boards, the officially registered arms of Houses, Castles, Estates and similar, the arms of former municipalities and two series of personal arms. These personal arms were of important Dutch and foreign families and persons during the 80-years war of independence (1568–1648) of the Netherlands against Spain. The total number of arms issued was 841.
For the content of the albums see here.
Norway
The Norwegian album, "Norske By-og Adelsvåben", was issued by Kaffe Hag Aktieskelskap in OsloOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
in 1933. Author was Hallvard Trætteberg
Hallvard Trætteberg
Hallvard Trætteberg was the leading Norwegian heraldic artist and the expert adviser on heraldry to the Government of Norway and the Norwegian Royal Family for much of the 20th century. From about 1930 he played a central role in the renewal of public heraldry in Norway with an emphasis on...
. Hallvard Trætteberg (1898–1987) was within the State Archives responsible for heraldry issues for several decades. He wrote numerous articles on heraldry, both personal as non-personal (civic and religious) heraldry in Norway.
The album is unique among the Scandinavian series, as it also contains the arms of Norwegian noble families, both historical and contemporary. It also contains a larger introduction to heraldry as compared to the other two albums. Like the Danish album it also contains a section on the production of coffee.
The stamps were issued in 8 sheets of 18 stamps each, with an additional 3 stamps with advertising on the last sheet.
For the content of the album see here.
Austria
The album "Die Wappen der Republik Oesterreich" was issued around 1933 and published in GrazGraz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
by the Verlag der Deutschen Vereins-Druckerei A.G. The author was F. Hasslinger.
Two different versions of the album were published; a small edition and a luxury edition. The luxury edition came in a cardboard cage and had one additional page with the Austrian National arms.
The album contains 450 (luxury) images, which are numbered from 1 to 449. The national arms has no number. The album is divided in chapters per State, with the State arms on a separate page, followed by the capital city and, alphabetically, the other towns and cities in the State. The exception is the State of Burgenland
Burgenland
Burgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...
, from which no town arms were published.
For the content of the album see here.
Poland
The Polish album, "Herbarz Polski", was issued in 1932 by Kawa Hag, Warszawa. The author was Dr. Marian Gumowski. Dr. Gumowski (1881–1974) was a historian from Torun, a well-known heraldicist.The album is mentioned as part one (Zeszyt I). More issues were planned with personal arms, but never published. Part one contains 284 arms of towns, (historical) districts, dioceses etc., but no personal arms.
The arms were supplied in 8 sheets of 36 stamps each. Four of these were used for advertising. The back of the stamps contained no texts.
For the content of the album see here.
Czechoslovakia
The album "Znaky Republiky Československé – Wappen der Tschechoslowakischen Republik" was issued around 1933.The Czechoslovak album was published by Grafických Umĕlechkých Závodů v. Neubert a synové, Praha-Smíchov (Graphischen Kunstanstalten v. Neubert und Söhne, Prag-Smíchov). The authors were Vilém Klein (Wilhelm Klein) and Anton Morávek.
The whole album is written in both Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
and German. The album has been published in a simple and a luxury edition. The luxury edition has a hard-cover in colour and a cardboard case. The luxury edition also has 6 more pages with the regional arms. The album is published as Part 1, but a second part was never published.
The album contains 180 stamps with images, which are numbered separately in each section. The album is divided in chapters per Region, with the Regional arms on a separate page, followed by again the Regional arms, the regional capital and, alphabetically, the other towns and cities in the Region. The Regions are: Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
, Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
and Carpathorussia (sometimes called Ruthenia
Ruthenia
Ruthenia is the Latin word used onwards from the 13th century, describing lands of the Ancient Rus in European manuscripts. Its geographic and culturo-ethnic name at that time was applied to the parts of Eastern Europe. Essentially, the word is a false Latin rendering of the ancient place name Rus...
).
For the content of the album see here.
Sweden
The Swedish album, "Sveriges Rigsvapen, Landskaps- och Stadsvapen", was issued by Kaffe Hag AB in Stockholm in 1932. It was printed by Karl Lindholm in StockholmStockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. The author is Friherre Harald Gustav Fleetwood (1879–1960). Fleetwood was the State Herald of Sweden from 1931–1965 and author of many heraldic papers.
The album contains only the arms of provinces and towns. The stamps were issued in 8 sheets of 18 stamps each, with an additional 5 stamps with advertising. As far as is known there have been no plans to issue a second album with personal arms.
For the content of the album see here.
Switzerland
The Swiss Coffee Hag series are the most complicated series of all the Coffee Hag albums. The Swiss albums were actually the first to be issued, as early as 1910 and were reprinted many times until the mid 1960s. This has resulted in a series of at least 76 different albums and more than 2500 variations in images. In total the number of stamps issued for the Swiss series is more than for all other series combined.The series were started in 1911 with the first album with Kantons und Stadtwappen (arms of Canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
s and cities), numbered 1-80. This album was printed at three different locations (München, Laupen
Laupen
There are places that have the name Laupen:In Switzerland:* Laupen, Bern, a municipality in the Canton of Bern* Laupen , the administrative district including that municipality...
and an unmarked issue) with the same images, but the stamps differed slightly in design. The 2nd album with arms of towns and villages (Stadt-und Dorfgemeinden, numbered 81-144) was also issued at the same time and same locations. The third album (images 145-288) was issued only at two locations in 1922. In 1923 the fourth album, named Stadt-und Dorfgemeinden (Serie C) was issued, and the numbering was started again with 1-48.
The series was then discontinued in the same style and redesigned. In 1926 the new series were started, in which not only town arms, but also personal and other arms were planned. The series started again with album 4, which has the same towns as the old series number 4, but now in a different design of album and images. Later albums 5-18 were issued in more or less the same style. Albums 4 and 5 were later combined to album 4/5, which, in a later issue, was again renamed album 5. In the 1950s the lay-out was changed again, and all albums (5-18) were issued with the new design, and an album 19 was added. Before WWII also two albums with arms of monasteries, dioceses and other religious arms were issued as numbers 1 and 2. An album 3 was never issued in the new series.
To complicate matters, the albums were also continuously revised. Arms were changed and updated due to recent grants, and the number of inhabitants was adjusted. In a few cases towns were replaced by other towns. This all resulted in at least 76 different albums.
For the content of the album see here.