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The History and Impact of the Horizontal Watermark

2026.02.24. 0 kommentarer

The „Horizontal Cross” Mystery: Why Did the Watermark Change in 1913?

Although the change to the watermark of the final Turul series was not widely announced – no official notice was published either before or after – it nevertheless held surprises for collectors, to which the profession quickly paid attention.

The Birth of the „Universal” Watermark

In January 1913, the Post and Telegraph Directorate General approached the Minister of Finance with a request to develop a new watermark for which it did not matter how the paper was fed into the printing press. The goal was for the watermark to always show the same design relative to the stamp image.

Thus the new pattern was born: „a continuous design of the apostolic double cross standing on a triple mound.” At this time, the previous factory watermark and the paper quality number disappeared from the paper.

The „Horizontal Cross” Sensation

No sooner had the new series been issued than collectors discovered that on some stamps the crosses were not upright but horizontal. It turned out that the paper mill, in the name of economy, had resorted to a trick: from the margins left after cutting out the upright-watermark sheets, they also cut sheets in a horizontal orientation to reduce waste. The State Printing Works was so outraged by this that from 1914 onwards it forbade the acceptance of horizontally watermarked paper.

What Do We Owe to the Flood Relief Stamps?

The appearance of horizontal watermarks is actually thanks to the Flood Relief Stamps. Since these were larger in size, a new type of printing sheet was required. If only upright watermarks had been used, 32% of the paper would have been wasted. By using rotated horizontal sheets, this loss was reduced to 10.5%.

Important Information for Collectors:

  • ◈ Watermark orientation: An important rule is that for upright and horizontal watermarks, there are not 8 different watermark positions, unlike the earlier crown watermarks.
  • ◈ The first ones: On the new paper, the 10 filler was the first to be produced (22 August 1913), followed in September by the 1 and 2 corona values.
  • ◈ The series: The horizontal watermark series consists of only 14 items, as not all denominations were printed on this paper.


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