Stamps in honour of the Croatian flag. A new commemorative edition that combines the first official tricolour and the modern flag of Croatia.
Croatian Post will release into circulation on June 5, 2023, on the Day of the Croatian Flag and the 175th anniversary of the Croatian tricolour, two new commemorative postage stamps featuring the motifs of the installation flag of Ban Josip Jelačić from 1848 and the contemporary Croatian flag behind a girl on an electric bicycle.
(Croatian Post)
The author of the commemorative stamps is Ariana Noršić, a designer from Samobor, and the illustrator is Maja Cipek, an academic painter also from Samobor. The face value of each individual stamp is 1.33 euros, issued in sheets of 8 stamps and in 30,000 copies per design. Croatian Post has also issued a first day cover (FDC).
(Croatian Post)
(Croatian Post)
The accompanying text was written by Colonel Dr. Željko Heimer, B.Sc., LF, FF, President of the Croatian Heraldic and Vexillological Association and President of the International Federation of Vexillological Associations.
Day of the Croatian Flag – 175th Anniversary of the Croatian Tricolor
This year marks the 175th anniversary of the installation of Ban Josip Jelačić when, as a sign of his honour and authority, he received his installation ban flag. This was the first official use of the Croatian red-white-blue tricolour, which has been practically continuously used since then in its original form as a symbol of the Croatian people and statehood, with changes in its heraldic, symbolic, and ideological elements at its center
The first Croatian tricolour flags appeared in March 1848 and soon gained great popularity in all Croatian regions. Its colours are based on the historical coats of arms of Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia. Instead of the previous red cavalry flags, Jelačić adopted the tricolour on June 5 as his ban flag, with the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia on one side and his personal coat of arms on the other.
(Croatian Post)
Since its appearance, the tricolour has become an inseparable part of the Croatian national identity. Although the tricolour has been banned in many periods, it has never lost popularity among Croatians. Its current form was adopted by the Croatian Parliament on December 21, 1990, when the design of the coat of arms of the Republic of Croatia was defined according to the visual solution by Miroslav Šutej, as well as its placement on the flag.
On the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the introduction of the tricolour in 2018, the Croatian Heraldic and Vexillological Association, the Croatian Historical Museum, the Croatian Institute of History, and the Society “Braća Hrvatskoga Zmaja” proclaimed June 5 as the Day of the Croatian Flag.
(Croatian Post)
In accordance with the expressed last will of Ban Jelačić himself, it would commemorate his ban flag from 1848 as the first tricolour Croatian national flag and promote the Croatian tricolour as a symbol of Croatian statehood and a strong means of building and preserving Croatian unity and national identity.
