Sigmund Friedl (1851,

Lipník nad Bečvou Lipník nad Bečvou (; ) is a town in Přerov District in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument reser ...

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

– 1914,

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

) was one of the most famous

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

philatelist Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possible ...

s. Toward the end of his life he defrauded

stamp collectors Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is an area of philately, which is the study (or combined study and collection) of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth ...

by selling them

forgeries Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally consists of the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud. Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidden by law in some jurisdict ...

. Sigmund Friedl's interest in

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

s started already at the age of 13. Only two years later, he started trading them. In 1872, he opened his own stamp shop in

. Soon he became a stamp expert and started working as an examiner. He had great success with his shop, for example, he sold the unique Tre Skilling Banco for a sum of 4,000

florins The Florentine florin was a gold coin (in Italian ''Fiorino d'oro'') struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains () of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a pu ...

to the famous collector,

Philipp von Ferrary Philip Ferrari de La Renotière (January 11, 1850 – May 20, 1917) was a noted French-born stamp collector, assembling probably the most complete worldwide collection that ever existed, or is considered likely to exist. Among his extremely rare ...

. Through his good relationship with the post, he was able to cheaply obtain the remaining stocks of several postage stamps and resell them. At the same time, he wrote the first Austrian

stamp catalogue A stamp catalog (or stamp catalogue) is a catalog of postage stamp types with descriptions and prices. The stamp catalog is an essential tool of philately and stamp collecting. Stamp catalogs are part of philatelic literature. Similar catalogs ...

s and enhanced the

stamp album Stamp albums are books used to house a collection of postage stamps. Overview Albums are a popular means of storing and displaying stamp collections for both beginners as well as accomplished collectors. They range from simple bound volumes int ...

s. Finally, Sigmund Friedl established his own stamp museum in his villa in

Unterdöbling Unterdöbling (Central Bavarian: ''Untadöbling'') was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinden. Geography The Katastralgemeinde Unterdöbli ...

. In 1881 and 1890, he organised the first major Austrian stamp exhibitions, which also attracted international attention. Friedl forgery

To Austrian philatelists, Sigmund Friedl is known mainly for his Friedl

perforation A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...

s and the disreputable Friedl forgeries. The Friedl perforations are private perforations of Austrian

definitive stamp A definitive stamp is a postage stamp that is part of the regular issue of a country's stamps, available for sale by the post office for an extended period of time and designed to serve the everyday postal needs of the country. The term is used in ...

s, which were tolerated by the post. The Friedl perforations always had a different number of perfs than the original perforation of the definitive stamp series made by the post. The forged stamps were mainly forgeries of the Mercury series issued in 1851, which were sold to collectors with fraudulent intent. After the deception was exposed, Friedl had to buy back some of these stamps.

External links

The 1881 and 1890 Vienna Philatelic Expositions
1851 births 1914 deaths People from Lipník nad Bečvou Moravian-German people Austrian philatelists Stamp forgers Austrian people of Moravian-German descent People from Austria-Hungary Philately of Austria {{Austria-bio-stub

See also

External links