The first Austrian stamps, beginning in 1850, used the kreuzer unit of currency for their value. At the time, 1 gulden = 60 kreuzer (sometimes spelled ‘kreutzer’).
Austrian kreuzer stamps are highly collectible because they were the first stamps of Austria, and because the denominations in kreuzer were used for the Austro-Hungarian Empire and beyond.
The first kreuzer postage stamps in Austria had the denomination written with a numeral plus the full word of the currency unit at the bottom (for example, ‘9 KREUZER’). Later stamps used an abbreviation (‘Kr’) instead.
Stamps of the Lombardy-Venetia area of far northeastern Italy used Austrian stamps but changed kreuzer to centesimi and, in 1858, adopted the units florin and soldis.
See also: Austria rare stamps for philatelists and other buyers
There were several different values and colors of kreuzer stamps issued in Austria during the last half of the nineteenth century. Most stamps of this time featured either a coat-of-arms or a portrait of Emperor Franz Jozef I. In 1899, the currency of Austria was changed to krone and heller units.
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