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20 Para Emergency Postage Stamp Currency
| Issuer | Serbia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dinar (1868-1918) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Brown letterpress print on pale paper with perforated stamp-format edges. Central vignette shows King Peter I of Serbia accompanied by generals, all oriented left toward the battlefield, rendered in a compact engraved style typical of contemporary postage stamp production. The denomination numeral and Cyrillic inscriptions are set above and below the vignette within the narrow stamp format. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain unprinted paper reverse with perforated stamp edges on all sides, retaining the characteristic gum surface of the postage stamp stock from which this emergency currency piece was produced. A faint gum remnant or adhesive residue is visible toward the left-centre of the surface. |
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| Comments |
Serbia's 1915 collapse under the combined Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian offensive forced the government into a complete monetary improvisation. With the National Bank evacuated and conventional printing impossible, postage stamps were formally authorized as fractional currency — a desperate but legally deliberate act, not an improvised field measure.
The 20 Para denomination was among the smallest values pressed into this role. These pieces survive in wildly varying states; the thin, ungummed paper used for the currency printings degrades differently than standard stamp stock, and distinguishing the two requires attention to gum traces and perforation consistency.