Bergedorf is a town near Hamburg in Germany, located on the Bille River.

The town received civic rights in 1275, and was jointly owned by Hamburg and Lübeck from 1420 to 1868, when it was purchased by Hamburg.

Postage stamps

Bergedorf is of note to philatelists because it issued its own postage stamps in 1861. At that time it had 2,989 residents, making it by far the smallest of the German towns to do so. The issue included 5 square stamps with denominations from 1/2 to 4 schillings. All used the same design - a combined coat of arms of Hamburg and Lübeck - but the higher values were larger stamps. All values were printed in black on different colored papers, except for the 3s, which was printed in blue on pink paper.

Since Bergedorf was such a small town, relatively few of these stamps were made, and even fewer used; the price of unused stamps is from 30-50 US$, while genuinely used stamps go for 300-2,000 US$. Reprints, forgeries, and especially faked cancellations are quite common.

Bergedorf began using stamps of the North German Confederation in 1868.

External link

• Bergedorf homepage (in German)