Coffee Hag albums

Coffee Hag albums

Introduction

In the early 20th century the Kaffee Handelsgesellschaft AG (Kaffee HAG) in Bremen, Germany, started with the publication of heraldic stamps and collector's albums.

The stamps and books were published as a result of the initiative of the Brücke association. This was an initiative of Emperor Wilhelm II to make an archive of published material. At the same time the association developed standard sizes for publishing material. To promote their activities and their new standards, they encouraged companies to publish material in their standards. The Kaffee Hag company was one of the companies that agreed to do so. Hence the stamps are published in the so-called Weltformat V der Brücke (or 4 x 5,66 cm), which is also printed on the back of the stamps. The albums were published in the Weltformat IX (16 x 22.6 cm). The association went bankrupt in 1913 and abolished in 1914, but the size of the stamps remained the same for all the albums.

Only on the German and Swiss stamps there was the reference to the Weltformat.

The company hired the famous artist Otto Hupp to design the stamps. Otto Hupp already published several well known volumes on German civic heraldry since the 1890s.

The albums became a success in Germany and the company exported the idea to the other European countries in which the company operated.

Advertising for the Dutch and Swiss albums (1927)

Advertising for the Dutch and Swiss albums (1928)

Two series, Germany and Switzerland, were started before World War I and were never finished. In the 1920s and 1930s the second series of these countries as well as the other countries were launched. In each country different heraldic artists were used to write the albums and draw the images.

In total around 125 different albums were published between 1914-1955. Albums for the Baltic states, Italy as well as a second album for Poland and an 11th for Germany were planned, but never issued. The French series stopped after 6 albums of the planned 40.

Albums issued

Below a list and some characteristics of the albums.

Country	Date of issue	Official number of albums	Albums incl. Reprints	Official number of images	variations	Total number	civic arms	other arms	additional texts
Germany old series	1913-1918	6	11	518	yes	600	yes	no	yes
Germany new series	1925-1939	101	11	2811	many	3000e	yes	no	no
Switzerland, old series	1911-1922	4	10	336	many	500e	yes	no	no
Switzerland, new series	1922-1965	19	66	1900	many	7000e	yes	yes	yes
Austria	1931	1	2	450	yes	900	yes	no	yes
Poland	1930s	1	1	284	no	288	yes	no	yes
Denmark	1930s	1	1	86	yes	175	yes	no	yes
Sweden	1930s	1	1	138	no	138	yes	no	yes
Norway	1930s	1	2	81	no	81	yes	yes	yes
Netherlands	1930s	2 2	2	1872	yes	1890	yes	yes	yes
Belgium/Luxemburg	1930s	6 3	6	782	yes	902	yes	no	yes
France	1930s	6	9	1500	yes	2000	yes	no	yes
Czechoslovakia	1930s	1	2	181	yes	285	yes	no	yes
Danzig	1930s	1	2	90	no	90	yes	yes	yes
Yugoslavia	1930s	1	1	256	no	256	yes	no	yes
United Kingdom/Ireland	1930s	1	1	240	no	241	yes	no	yes
Total		62	128	11525		18342

¹ Loose issues that could be bound in 10 smaller or 4 larger albums. Index based on 10 albums

² Loose issues, could be stored in a box, softcover or small hardcover albums (4-6 were needed) or 2 large hardcover albums

³ Loose issues, but normally bound in 3 small albums per language

^e = number of variations is very large and number given is estimate

Other arms: for Switzerland: arms of monasteries and dioceses; for Norway personal arms; for Netherlands personal arms, arms of water boards; for Danzig, flags, seals and personal arms

For more information on the different albums per country click on the links in the table above. The total number of albums and arms displayed makes it the largest published volume of civic heraldry ever. Due to political changes the arms represented in the albums are now in 28 different countries. This includes Indonesia and Surinam, which were represented in the Dutch albums.

Present country	album
Andorra	France
Belarus	Poland
Belgium	Belgium/Luxemburg
Bosnia	Yugoslavia
Croatia	Yugoslavia
Czech Republic	Czechoslovakia
Denmark	Denmark
France	France
Germany	Germany
Indonesia	Netherlands
Ireland	British Isles (UK and Ireland)
Italy	Yugoslavia, Switzerland (religious arms)
Lithuania	Poland, Germany
Luxemburg	Belgium/Luxemburg
Montenegro	Yugoslavia
Monaco	France
Netherlands	Netherlands
Norway	Norway
Poland	Germany, Poland, Danzig, Czechoslovakia
Russia	Poland, Germany
Serbia	Yugoslavia
Slovak Republic	Czechoslovakia
Slovenia	Yugoslavia
Surinam	Netherlands
Sweden	Sweden
Switzerland	Switzerland
Ukraine	Czechoslovakia, Poland
United Kingdom	British Isles (UK and Ireland)