Bulgaria 1884 Postage Due Stamp

Bulgaria · 1884 · 5 Stotinki

This is the first postage-due stamp issued by Bulgaria. The design is purely typographic, featuring a large numeral '5' indicating the value, surrounded by Cyrillic text 'ДОПЛАЩАНЕ' (Surcharge) and 'СТОТИНКИ' (Stotinki). The stamp is printed in black on yellow paper, establishing a simple yet functional design for its purpose.

Issued in 1884, this stamp marks the establishment of a formal system for collecting insufficient postage in the Principality of Bulgaria, which had gained autonomy from the Ottoman Empire just a few years earlier in 1878.