CINDERELLAS
Revenues of Saxony
When going through albums of miscellaneous Cinderella stamps, you sometimes discover items which are difficult to identify, writes Christer Brunström. Frequently it can also be rather tricky to figure out exactly what their purpose was.
The illustrated stamp is a typical example. It is quite a handsome design featuring the coat of arms of the town of Döbeln in the Kingdom of Saxony. It was probably issued sometime in the 1890s by the municipal council. The denomination is 25 pfennig and the word VISIRMARKE at the top of the stamp gives us a clue as to its purpose.
More than 40 cities and towns in Saxony released this kind of fiscal stamps which were known as VISIRMARKE or MELDE-MARKE. They were first used by the police in the city of Dresden in 1863 but most were issued in the early 1900s.
Whenever a citizen moved to a new residence, the change of address had to be registered with the local police and there generally was a charge of 25 pfennig; a VISIRMARKE was affixed to the document and then cancelled.
Many well-to-do families employed servants and they also needed to register their employment with the local police. For this purpose they had a little book where the relevant information was entered and finally a stamp was added to indicate that the fee of 25 pfennig had been paid. It is my guess that servants lacking this
