Verigar issue
Encyclopedia
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
series issued in Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
at the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
The stamp series was designed in late 1918 in Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
during the short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was a short-lived state formed from the southernmost parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy after its dissolution at the end of the World War I by the resident population of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs...
and issued on 3 January 1919 after the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
The stamp design includes the abbreviated name of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs written in Cyrillic
Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is an adaptation of the Cyrillic script for the Serbian language, developed in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two standard modern alphabets used to write the Serbian language, the other being Latin...
and Latin script ("Држава СХС" - "Država SHS"). The stamp design, created by painter Ivan Vavpotič, also includes an image that represents a man who has broken the chains enslaving him; he stands in front of a rising sun. The scene symbolizes the freedom of the Slavic peoples
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
from Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
.
The name of the stamp series is derived from the Slovenian
Slovenian language
Slovene or Slovenian is a South Slavic language spoken by approximately 2.5 million speakers worldwide, the majority of whom live in Slovenia. It is the first language of about 1.85 million people and is one of the 23 official and working languages of the European Union...
word veriga 'chain'.
On 19 March 1993, the Slovenian post office issued a new stamp series using the Verigar man to commemorate its 75th anniversary.
In 2008, Vavpotič's verigar design was adopted as the symbol of the Slovenian Liberty Seminars
Liberty Seminars
The Liberty Seminars is a project organized by Društvo Svetilnik , a Slovenian classical liberal think tank in the Bohinj Valley of Triglav National Park in north-western Slovenia....
.
External links
- Slovenian National Museum of Ljubljana pictures of Verigar issue (text in Slovenian)
- The 1993 issue on the Slovenian Post website in Slovenian, translated without the text into English. http://www.posta.si/Namizje.aspx?tabid=388&artikelid=5441