Slovenia‘s postage stamp history has historically been closely linked with that of Yugoslavia, but it has had its own postage stamps issued at various times in its history, and has been issuing stamps as an independent nation since 1991.
The first stamps used in Slovenia were those of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, in 1918, Slovenia joined a new union called the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes; this would eventually become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
First Slovenia stamps, 1919
In 1919, the new Kingdom issue stamps for use in Slovenia, which can be hard to identify as Slovenian at first. Chief among these first true Slovenia stamps were the famous chainbreakers. Other Slovenian stamps followed, inscribed in Cyrillic and in Slovenian: КРАЉЕВИНА СХС / KRALJEVINA SHS appeared on some, КРАЉЕВСТВО СХС / KRALJEVSTVO SHS on others. There were also overprinted newspaper stamps and postage due stamps. Soon, regular Yugoslavian stamps were used in Slovenia.
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Occupied Slovenia stamps of Italy and Germany, World War II
In World War II, Slovenia was occupied by both Germany and Italy. The western area of Slovenia became the occupied Province of Ljubljana, and stamps with both Italian and German overprints were issued, in addition to a set of stamps issued especially for the Province in 1945.
Post-1991 Slovenia stamps
After World War II, Slovenia again became part of Yugoslavia and had no special stamps issued. In 1991, Slovenia became independent and began issuing its own new postage stamps. Slovenian stamps are always inscribed SLOVENIJA and are denominated in tolar and stotin (1 tolar = 100 stotin).
In addition to the several interesting and collectible regular Slovenian postage stamps, there are several appealing collector’s issues and special philatelic items available.
