POSTER STAMPS AND LABELS OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES

      INTRODUCTION

      STATISTICS

      UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

        SUMMER GAMES
1894 - Modern Games Founded
1896 - I Olympiad - Athens
1900 - II Olympiad - Paris
      - Vignettes of the 1900 Paris Expo
1904 - III Olympiad - St. Louis
1906 - Intercalated Games - Athens
1908 - IV Olympiad - London
1912 - V Olympiad - Stockholm
1913 - Berlin prepares for 1916 games
1914 - 20th Anniversary of Rebirth of Games
1916 - VI Olympiad - Berlin
1920 - VII Olympiad - Antwerp
1924 - VIII Olympiad - Paris
      - Post Cards
1928 - IX Olympiad - Amsterdam
1932 - X Olympiad - Los Angeles
1936 - XI Olympiad - Berlin
1940 - XII Olympiad - Tokyo
      - XII Olympiad - Helsinki
      - New Zealand Centennial Games
1944 - XIII Olympiad - London
      - German POW Games
1948 - XIV Olympiad - London
1952 - XV Olympiad - Helsinki
1956 - XVI Olympiad - Melbourne
      - XVI Olympiad - Stockholm
1960 - XVII Olympiad - Rome

1894 - Modern Games Founded

According to Wikipedia:
Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin was a French educator and historian, and founder of the International Olympic Committee. He is considered the father of the modern Olympic Games. The idea for reviving the Olympic Games as an international competition came to Coubertin in 1889, and he spent the following five years organising an international meeting of athletes and sports enthusiasts that might make it happen. The congress was held on 23 June 1894 at the Sorbonne in Paris, and the modern Olympic movement was officially born.”

Poster stamps were already very popular by that time, and the stamp below was created around the time of that first Olympic Congress, to commemorate the event. It is the FIRST Olympic stamp of any sort - postal or poster, and it is quite scarce.

Click on image below to open an enlarged version in a separate window/tab

   
1894-1

Text from DuBois:

This round label with the date "1894" on it is believed to be the oldest Olympic label (or stamp). It is said to have been issued in the period after the foundation of the International Olympic Committee (1894) and before the Games of the first Olympiad of the modern era (1896).

COMITÉ INTERNATIONAL above, OLYMPIQUE below, latter texts are inside the circular border; 1894 in center.

Vignette, between texts and 1894: two branches of laurel in the shape of an open crown.

A thin-lined border is between the texts and the outer edge.

A round label, 35mm diameter, design is embossed white on a blue background.

                                   a) sky-blue ............... $60.00
                                   b) pale sky-blue ....... $60.00

3/12/16 - Recently I found this image somewhere on the www.
It seems to confirm that the label above was issued in conjunction with the first Olympic Congress in 1894.

 

4/22/16 - BELOW, two recent examples of 1894-1 from eBay, showing the effects of age, light, poor storage, etc. I emailed the seller of the second item, and he assured me it was authentic, but "oxidized," and had sold for much less than a fresh copy. These images lead me to question whether there are really two versions of the label, as DuBois asserts, or merely changelings from light and age.

 

PRICING: The prices shown in the DuBois catalog were his estimates of retail values at the time he published the catalog - 1986. Prices today are mostly higher.

      SOLVED MYSTERIES!

      STILL MISSING

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      UPDATE HISTORY

       SUMMER GAMES
1964 - XVIII Olympiad - Tokyo
1968 - XIX Olympiad - Mexico City
1972 - XX Olympiad - Munich

       WINTER GAMES
1924 - I Winter Games - Chamonix
1928 - II Winter Games - St Moritz
1932 - III Winter Games - Lake Placid
1936 - IV Winter Games - Garmisch-Partenkirchen
1940 - V Winter Games - Sapporo
      - V Winter Games - St Moritz
      - V Winter Games - Garmisch-Partenkirchen
1944 - V Winter Games - Cortina d'Ampezzo
1948 - V Winter Games - St Moritz
1952 - VI Winter Games - Oslo
1956 - VII Winter Games - Cortina d'Ampezzo
1960 - VIII Winter Games - Squaw Valley
1964 - IX Winter Games - Innsbruck
1968 - X Winter Games - Grenoble
1972 - XI Winter Games - Sapporo

       OTHER TOPICS
      - U.S. OLYMPIC SHIELD DECALS
      - Workers' Olympics


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I am indebted to Robert J DuBois for allowing me to use images and information from his Catalog of Olympic Labels on these web pages.

All text and images are the property of the author. Any errors are his.
REWARD! If you have better or additional information about anything shown or discussed here, please email the author.
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All text Copyright © 2013, William M. Senkus

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Created -- 07/27/2013
Revised -- 07/21/2018