RECENTLY DISCOVERED EARLY REPUBLICAN CENSOR MARKS OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR: AZPEITIA, CALLÚS, CASASBUENAS, LLANES AND VIDIAGO

Ernst L. Heller published in 1995 a very complete catalogue of Republican censor marks of the Spanish Civil War (Marcas utiltizadas por la censura republicana durante la guerra civil española, Hobby, Mdrid 1995). Previously to him, Gérard Apollaro also published a catalogue with some of the most common Republican censor marks for the general mail (Histoire Postale de la guerre civile d’Espagne, Secteur républicain, Philoffset Editions, Marseille, no date [mid 1980’s]). In 1988 he published a second volume of his catalogue where he added several new local censor marks (Histoire Postale de la guerre civile d’Espagne, Secteur républicain, Compléments 1987/88, Philoffset Editions, Marseille, 1988). While Apollaro registered every kind of Republican marks he found (mixig military and civilian marks), Heller focused only on the marks used on civilian mail to indicate censorship.

The local Republican censor marks were improvised at the beginning of the war and were only used during 1936 and early 1937. The censorship was later centralized in main cities (Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia) and all the local marks disappeared. This short life period of the local marks has made them difficult to find, and discovering unlisted new marks is a true rare event.

Colectalia.com has discovered eight unlisted local censor marks used in Azpeitia, Callús, Casasbuenas, Llanes and Vidiago in August, September and December 1936. You can see the pieces bearing those marks browsing our catalogue, performing a search by reference as follows:

Azpeitia: C10809

Callús: C03357

Casasbuenas: C02711

Llanes: C10810, C10812, C10813 & C10814

Vidiago: C10811

The following marks and their description are a complement to Ernst L. Heller and Gérard Apollaro’s catalogues:

Azpeitia

Fig. 1 – September 7, 1936
«IZQUIERDA REPUBLICANA * AZPEITIA (Guipúzcoa)*»
Diameter 37mm, violet

Callús

Fig. 2 – December 1936
«Comité d'Enllaç Antifeixista de la Comarca Manresa-Berga / CALLÚS»
Diameter 39mm, lilac

Casasbuenas

Fig. 3 – December 4, 1936
«COMITE DE MILICIAS Y DEFENSA / DE LA CIUDAD / CASASBUENAS (Toledo)»
51x30mm, lilac

Casasbuenas

Fig. 4 – December 4, 1936
«[PARTIDO COMUNIS]TA - CASASBUENAS (TOLEDO)»
Diameter 32mm, rose

Llanes

Fig. 5 – Aug. 12, 1936 & Aug 13, 1936
«ALCALDIA DE LLANES»
41x33mm, violet

Llanes

Fig. 6 – August 28, 1936
«COMITE DEL FRENTE POPULAR / LLANES»
Diameter 31mm, violet

Llanes

Fig. 7 – August 13, 1936 & August 18, 1936
«AGRUPACIÓN SOCIALISTA LLANES»
Diameter 35mm, violet

Vidiago

Fig. 8 – Septemer 27, 1936
«COMITÉ / del / FRENTE POPULAR / de / VIDIAGO (Llanes)»
48x33mm, blue

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