If you receive a letter with stamps at an angle or even upside down , you probably don't think much of it. Why? A few decades earlier you would probably be highly emotional: the stamp, or rather the position of the stamp affixed to it, should already convey the first messages.
Sometime in the 1980s, someone came up with the idea of transmitting the first secret messages by placing the postage stamp. Probably a sophisticated businessman who wanted to make some money with illustrated instructions. It is also possible that a private idea was taken up and used. It is known that the placement of stamps can also convey subliminal messages. A stamp that was supposedly accidentally turned over was used to express disrespect for the recipient.
For example, a stamp tilted diagonally to the right can mean: “I love you!” A stamp tilted diagonally to the left, on the other hand, was less friendly: “People don’t say much good about you”.
The meanings and interpretations vary greatly depending on the time and country, but are usually meant lovingly and cannot be taken very precisely. This way of expressing oneself is comparable to the shortened youth language of the SMS era and other forms of expression used by young people. So every time has its forms of expression.
In any case, collecting evidence of stamp language has become a very popular collecting area. This area is also important in terms of value retention and facility is important for the collector. Documents, mostly in the form of postcards, are sometimes very sought after. Especially from the Weimar Republic period and earlier. For this purpose, corresponding prices are called up and paid at auctions. And the end of the flagpole is far from being reached. It is definitely worth looking through your own holdings for such documents, as well as starting a collection with the subject “stamp language”.
Actually reached its highest level of cultivation in Germany, the stamp language has also been a form of expression for young people and lovers in other, mostly European countries. Nowadays you can see that this old tradition is becoming fashionable again.
