Bosnia & Herzegovina

1st July 1879

26, a-c


	1894 Sc1	1879 Sc2	xxx

perf 9 to 13½ and compound, wmk, lithographed
Printed at the State Printing Works, Vienna.

Description	Date	Scott#	SG# ‡	Mi#	Y&T#	Mink#	Notes
½ novcica black	1894 †	1	104	9	9	9	Type II
1n grey	1879	2	1	1a	1	1
1n grey-lilac	1879	2a	2	1b	1a	1a
2n yellow	1879	4	3, 4	2	2	2
3n green	1879	5	5-7	3	3	3
5n rose red	1879	6	8, 9	4	4	4
10n blue	1879	7	10-12	5	5	5
15n brown	1879	8	13-16	6	6	6
20n grey-green	1893	9	80-81	7	7	7
25n violet	1879	10	18-20	8	8	8

† Scott is alone in designating the 1894 ½ novcica black as #1.
‡ Gibbons distinguishes between colour variants in the numbers above and also between many perforation variants and that results in SC1 equating to SG104.

Bosnia & Herzegovina first issue

All the early stamps were to very similar designs, as shown in the set from Sandafayre, although the catalogues identify three types, with differences in three aspects of the heladic design. Sc2-10 are all Type I, Sc1 is Type II.

	eagle	eaglets	lion
Type I	Shading lines in the feathers and the lowest feather touches the curved line	Eaglets on the right hand side are blank	The eye is a small dot
Type II	As Type I	A line across the lowest eaglet	Large dot for the eye
Type III	Each feather has two lines pf shading and the lowest feather does not touches the curved line	As Type I	As Type I

SC1 only exists as Type II, but there a three variants, as described in the Newsletter v15n2p8 (2007).

Sc1 (1894 first printing) - lithographed, perf 9 to 13 and compound. Identified by the black dot between the curved ends of the ornaments near the lower spandrils touching the curve at the right.
Sc1a (1894 second printing) - typographed perf 10½ to 13 and compound. The dot stands clear of the curved lines.
Sc1a (1911 reprint) - perf 12½, white paper.

Gibbons summarises the history admirably and it is paraphrased here.

Bosnia and Herzegovina became parts of the Turkish Empire separately in C15 and after the Russo-Turkish War, the 1878 Congress of Berlin placed them under Turkish suzerainty but stipulated an Austro-Hungarian garrison. Austria-Hungary had to enforce its presence and introduced a military field post using A-H stamps in January 1879, followed by B-H stamps in July. A-H annexed B-H in 1908.
In 1918 the A-H Empire disintegrated and B-H became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia.
During WW2, the region was incorporated into Croatia and in 1945 part of the new federal Yugoslavia. When that broke up, B-H declared its independence in 1992 and was recognised internationally.
Hostilities broke out between the Croat, Muslim and Serbian populations, leading to three de-facto administrations: the mainly moslem Bosnian governmant in Sarajevo; the Croats in Mostar; and the Serbian Republic or Republica Srpska in Pale.
"Under the Dayton Agreement in November 1995 the Republic was split between a Moslem-Croat Federation and the Serbian Republic. The settlement was sponsored by NATO whose military forces were deployed as peace-keepers". (SG Part ( 2002) Part 3 (1998))

Wikipedia brings it up to date.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina has a bicameral legislature and a three-member Presidency composed of a member of each major ethnic group. However, the central government's power is highly limited, as the country is largely decentralized and comprises two autonomous entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, with a third region, the Brčko District, governed under local government. ” [accessed 10th April 2016]

Changes of Administration


Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes	Muslim Govt. in Sarajevo	Croatian Posts	Bosnian Serb Administration, Banja Luca
1918 Sc1L1 SG1 (Yugoslavia)	1993 Sc200 SG450	1993 Sc1 SG-C1	1992 Sc1 Sc-S1	1993 Sc12 SG-S12

Scott Classic (2005), Standard (2009) and Gibbons Part 2 Austria & Hungary (1998), Part 3 Balkans (1998) and Simplified (2005) are available to the writer to show how these changes have manifested themselves in stamp issues.

1879-1918	Scott Sc1-141 then referred to the Yugoslavia listing. Gibbons Austro-Hungarian Occupation 1878-1908 (SG1-201); Annexed to Austria-Hungary 1908-19 (SG343-440), then referred to Yugoslavia in Part 3.
1918-20	Listed under Yugoslavia, a series of overprints of B-H stamps: Sc-1L1 to 1L42, SG1-52, then used general issues for the whole of Yugoslavia.
1993	Muslim Govt. in Sarajevo Scott continues the B-H listing at Sc200, Gibbons at SG450
1993	Croatian Posts, new listings starting at Sc1, SG-C1
1992	Serbian Adminstration Sc1, referred to in Gibbons as Republika Srpska, SG-S1. Initially a set of surcharges, followed by a dedicated stamp (Sc12, SG-S12)