Interpol 50th Anniversary Stamp

This stamp was issued in Austria on February 10th, 1973 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Interpol. It depicts a radio operator with a transmitter and a Morse key either sending or receiving a document. The connection between the telegraph and Interpol isn't just retro-technology. The Organization's official name is "ICPO–INTERPOL." The acronym "ICPO" stands for 'International Criminal Police Organization, but in French, the acronym would be OIPC.

The word INTERPOL"is a contraction of International Police, and was chosen in 1946 as the telegraphic address. In 1956 they made it official and adopted that as their formal name. With some irony the organization held onto telegraph technology too long —well into the 1980s. As a consequence they have spent the last few decades trying to modernize their global operation across a very technologically unequal world.

Telegraph Stamps

These are the precursor to QSL stamps etc. These are most often encountered by mistaken and beuddled postal stamp collectors.

Telegraph stamps are service fee stamps that prove payment for delivery of a telegraphic message. They are first cousins of postage stamps, which prepay a very similar service: delivery of a message through the postal system.

Initially postage or revenue stamps were used to indicate payment of the government telegraphy fee. (Yes a telegraph tax. why not, Syria taxed urination in Roman times... ) Over time, many governments began to issue separate telegraph stamps.

Sending a prepaid telegram was quite similar to posting a letter. The telegraph stamp was applied to a telegraph form containing the message to be sent and dropped into a telegraph collection box. Couriers emptied the boxes and took the forms to the servicing telegraph office from which the message was sent. At the receiving end, messengers delivered the telegram to the recipient. Literature on telegraph stamps is rare nd is limited to a few specialized catalogs listing telegraph stamps by their respective country of origin.

Stephen Hiscocks, an amazingly dedicated nerd compiled a book of them in 1982 called Telegraph and Telephone Stamps of the World.. It's a little hard to find as it was self-published...

But as Telegraph wires came down and wireless stations came up the telegraph stamp started to seem so quaint, and eventually they expired.