Austria - Stamp Auctions

The Austrian Empire issued its first adhesive postage stamps on June 1, 1850. The stamps featured the Imperial arms and were issued in five denominations.
The complete sheets included 60 stamp impressions and four blank positions with St. Andrew's Cross printed on them. These four positions are very rare and bring high prices at stamp auctions.
Later issues featured a profile portrait of emperor Franz Josef I. In all 12 different issues were printed until the end of wwI.
At the end of the war the first "German Austria" stamps appeared in December 1918. Beginning in 1922, all issues of Austrian First Republic stamps were inscribed "Österreich".
In April 1938, the Republic of Austria was annexed by Germany, and became the state of Ostmark within Greater Germany. From that time, until the collapse of the Third Reich in early 1945, German stamps were used.
The Second Republic of Austria stamps officially appeared in November 1945, and were valid throughout the country and all the Allied Occupation zones. Austrian stamps and postal history items are very popular collecting areas as well as Austro-Hungary, Austrian offices in the Ottoman Empire.