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-> The Coat of Arms (COA)
Philatelic literature had seemed agreed that the "Wheat Sheaf and Hammers"
design was the town coat of arms (COA) at the time the stamps were used.
This idea is reinforced by the "Wheat Sheaf and Hammers" as part of the town cancel, starting with Issue III, perhaps earlier.
But the current coat of arms is the "twin towers and gate," which was granted in 1551, according to tourist literature ("Przedbórz in Photography and Poem.")
- This leads to the questions: What's the history of the town coat of arms?
When was it changed? Why? By Whom?
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The answers have been provided by Pawel Zieba via Zdzislaw and Marek Porawski of Luban, Poland, with the translating help of Roman Harmel of Polonus.
I filled in a point or two.1
Most of the following links are to Wikipedia entries.
Starting in 18442, Przedbórz was in the Radom Gubernia of the Russian partition of Poland, or the so-called Congress Kingdom of Poland.
- Perhaps in response to the 1863-64 January uprising, the Russians had started a systematic campaign to suppress Polish symbols and replace them with more "Russian" ones, such as the sheaf and hammers coat of arms on the right, which were installed in the Radom Gubernia on 25 Feb. 1869.
- Apparently Gubernia arms were used throughout the Gubernia, wherever COAs were used, which explains why it seems hard to find town COAs during this period.Therefor Przedbórz adapted a stylized version of the Radom gubernia coat of arms.
So philatelists are wrong when they describe the "sheaf and hammers" COA as Przedbórz's. That COA is a modification of the Radom Gubernia's.
- Przedbórz didn't revert back to the original coat of arms until sometime after the end of WWI and renewal of Polish independence. Everyone was busy with more imporant things such as organizing government and services, and fighting wars and uprisings with the Ukrainians, Russians, Czechoslovaks, Lithuanians, and Polish Silesians against the Germans.
Read about the castle.
© 2007-11 Sam Ginsburg
Last modified 2 Oct. 2011