page_title: Postage stamps and postal history of Poland
section_title: Local postal services 1915–18
hierarchical_section_title: Postage stamps and postal history of Poland / Local postal services 1915–18
caption_attribution_description: English: Warsaw Local Post 1915 Cover, scanned December 2009 by User:JPKos
context_page_description: Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, was founded in 1558 and postal markings were first introduced in 1764. The three partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795 saw the independent nation of Poland disappear. The postal services in the areas occupied by Germany and Austria were absorbed into those countries' postal services. In 1772 the area occupied by Austria was created into the Kingdom of Galicia, a part of the Austrian Empire. This lasted till 1918. The Duchy of Warsaw was created briefly, between 1807 and 1813, by Napoleon I of France, from Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. In 1815, following Napoleons’ defeat in 1813, the Congress of Vienna, created Congress Poland out of the Duchy of Warsaw and also established the Free City of Kraków. Congress Poland was placed under the control of Russia and the postal service was given autonomy in 1815. In 1851 the postal service was put under the control of the Russian post office department regional office in St Petersburg.
context_section_description: The occupying forces did not provide any local delivery service; they left it to town council set up local delivery services. Some of these councils produced stamps for providing this service others used cachets, which were stamped on the letters. Most of the stamps which were issued, were produced without permission of the occupying authorities. None of these were valid for use once Polish stamps had been issued in November 1918.
  The list of local postal services which used stamps and/or handstamps for local deliveries is as follows:
  Aleksandrów – handstamp
  Będzin – handstamps
  Chęciny – 8 stamps issued unofficially; considered as fantasy stamps
  Czeladż – handstamp
  Częstochowa – handstamps
  Grodno – handstamp
  Kalisz – 2 handstamps
  Koło – handstamps
  Lipno – handstamp
  Luboml – 7 stamps ordered and printed, arrived too late to be used
  Łódź – handstamps
  Mława – handstamp
  Otwock – 1 stamp and handstamps
  Pabiannice – handstamp
  Pruszków – handstamps
  Przedbórz – 18 stamps recognized as being issued
  Siedlce – handstamps
  Sosnowiec – 7 different stamps issued and handstamps
  Skierniewice – handstamp
  Tomaszów Mazowiecki – handstamp
  Warszawa – 10 different stamps and handstamps
  Wilno – handstamps
  Włocławek – handstamp
  Wysokie Mazowieckie – handstamp
  Zawiercie – 2 stamps
  Żarki – 9 stamps issued
  Żyrardów – handstamp
caption: Warszawa local post stamp applied to a cover from Bromberg. The signature to the left side of this stamp is that of M A Bojanowicz author of The Kingdom of Poland. Poland No 1 and associated Postal History
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