5/19/2021
Postage stamp Stamp Day – 150th Anniversary of the First Serbian Postcard
Today, the Post of Serbia puts into circulation the commemorative issue of postage stamps marking the Stamp Day. The motif of this year's issue is the jubilee of the first Serbian postcard, which was written in Serbian and sent from Vienna, on 19 May 1871, by Jovan Manojlović, from the editorial office of the satirical magazine "Zmaj", to the address of lawyer Dimitrij Manojlović in Sombor.
The postcard was also ordered by the magazine "Zmaj", which was published in Vienna in 1971, and the postacrd was popularly named after it. It was made by copper plate etching technique by the Viennese typographer Rudolf Schirer von Weidheim, while the artistic solution - a drawing of the mythical creature of a dragon with outstretched wings, and depictions of Constantinople and Moscow between which a steamer sails under the Serbian flag, was made by geodetic officer Petar Manojlović.
The "Dragon" postcard is one of the first in the world, and only one copy has been preserved to this day. It entered the encyclopedia in our country (JLZ) and is a world rarity. It was last sold to the current owner at an auction in 2009 in Salzburg.
The commemorative issue of postage stamps contains a stamp with a face value of 30 dinars, a first day cover (FDC) and a commemorative cachet. © Institute for Postcard Valuation and Processing (SOURCE), Zagreb; professional cooperation - Union of Philatelists of Serbia, graphic realisation of the issue - Jakša Vlahović, creator of the stamps at the Post of Serbia.