GERMAN PHILATELY

OFFICIAL POSTAL STATIONERY
(1875)

This page was last updated
19-Sep-2026 06:44

P5
OFFICIAL POSTCARD
5 'PFENNIGE'

BACKGROUND:

This card was issued on 1st Jan 1875 (P5-II) for domestic use. Measuring 140 x 90 mm this official postcard features a violet 'number in ellipse with crown' value stamp of 5 Pf (the same as the adhesive Michel 32), and is inscribed "PFENNIGE" (with an 'E').

Early German postcards were manufactured by a number of different suppliers, so in order to help with quality control, cards from 1876 were produced with dots removed from the beginning or end of the third dotted address line (later the 4th dotted line). Different suppliers used different combinations of missing dots.

P5 VARIANTS

This card exists in three variations.

P5-I/ 01 Issued end 1875:
This version has a gap in the 3rd dotted address line at one or more of the following positions:

Dot gaps left position 2, 3, 24, 2-3
Dot gaps right position 8, 10, 7-8, 5+10.

P5-I/ 02 Issued end 1876:
This version has a gap in the 4th dotted address line at one or more of the following positions:

Dot gaps left position 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6, 6-7, 2-4, 3-5, 4-6, 3+5, 3+13 (FL)
Dot gaps right position 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11 (FL), 2-3, 2-4, 3-4, 4-5, 4-6, 5-6, 6-7, 7-8
Dot gaps left and right at positions L3+R3, L3+R5, L3+R7+24 (FL), L7+R3-R4

There are still many irregular gaps that are meaningless such as: left 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, 5+ 10, right 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 15+17(FL).

P5-II Issued 1st Jan 1875:
P5-II was issued just prior to the introduction of the quality control process mentioned above so is without any gaps in either the 3rd or 4th dotted address line.

As well as the regular official card there were also privately printed postcards.

REFERENCES

MICHEL Ganzsachen Deutschland 2025/2026 24th Auflage ISBN 978-3-95402-526-8