TurulBélyeg: base de conocimiento

Budapest 62: The „Railway Station Giant” of Hungarian Philately

During the reign of the Turul stamps from 1900 to 1916, the Budapest postal network developed almost explosively, but no office could compete with Post Office No. 62. This office was not just a district centre: located next to the Western Railway Station (Nyugati pályaudvar), it was one of the most important distribution hubs of the imperial mobile postal network.

The imposing palace at 51 Teréz Boulevard, designed by Béla Goszleth and inaugurated in 1910, was built specifically to serve the enormous mail and parcel traffic. If a modern collector examines Turul stamps, among the Budapest postmarks statistically they are most likely to encounter number 62. The reason is simple: a significant portion of mail arriving and departing by train was processed here, in the immediate vicinity of the tracks.

The collection seen in the image above faithfully reflects the diversity of the era. We can observe various denominations of the Turul series, from 2 filler up to higher values. The impressions of the postmarks clearly show the precision of the time: the „Budapest 62” inscription was accompanied by the date (year, month, day), helping to trace the postal route afterwards.

A particular curiosity is the distinguishing letter suffix seen on the postmarks (e.g. „62 a”, „62 b” or „62 cc”). Since dozens of windows and workstations at the Western Post Office were stamping in parallel, these letters identified exactly which canceller handled the particular item. This vast logistical machine made Post Office No. 62 one of the most modern and efficient institutions of Budapest in the Monarchy era.