Philately: What's New

150 years of the Café Central - Indulgence with a history

Since 1876, the Café Central in Vienna’s city centre has been more than just a coffee house, becoming a true Viennese institution with plenty of charm and a rich history.

The Café Central is located in the Palais Ferstel on the corner of Herrengasse and Strauchgasse. The palace was designed by the architect of Vienna’s Ring Road, Heinrich von Ferstel, commissioned by the k. k. privilegierte Nationalbank (Privileged National Bank), to serve as a bank and stock exchange building including commercial spaces, executed in the Venetian-Florentine Trecento style. After building was completed in 1860, the Vienna Stock Exchange occupied the ground floor of what was then the most modern building in the city, moving out shortly afterwards, however, due to space-related issues. The brothers Gustav and Hermann Pach subsequently opened the Café Central in 1876 in the rooms formerly occupied by the stock exchange. Not least because of the wide range of foreign-language newspapers available there, in the period around the turn of the century, the café was a meeting place for intellectuals and artists: Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler, Robert Musil and Leon Trotsky were regulars, as was the author Peter Altenberg, who actually gave out the Café Central as his home address. The coffee house closed in 1943 after being badly damaged, restoration work only being started in 1975, with the café once again occupying its former place in the pillared hall of the Palais Ferstel from 1986.

Following a comprehensive renovation on its anniversary, the Café Central will soon once again be a popular highlight with visitors from Austria and abroad. Its impressive interior is as much a part of the attraction as the speciality coffees, the fine pastries and classic dishes such as Wiener Schnitzel and Kaiserschmarren.

Graphic design: Liz Wurzinger
Value: 1.25 euros
Pre-issue day: 01.10.2026
First day of issue: 01.10.2026
First day: 1030 Vienna
Stamp size: 40.00 x 33.00 mm
Perforation measurement: 13 x 13¼
Printing: Cartor Security Printers
Printing technique: Offset printing
Quantity: 150,000 stamps on sheets of 50
Order no: 226500

Ajax, 1841 - Railway history

At 185 years old and therefore the oldest surviving steam train on the European continent, nowadays the Ajax can be admired at the Technical Museum in Vienna.

The Ajax, along with the Minotaurus was purchased from the English steam train manufacturers Jones, Turner & Evans in 1841 for use in goods and passenger transport. The two steam locomotives with separate tenders with internal steam cylinders and Stephenson valve gear were used on the line between Floridsdorf and Stockerau, a branch line of the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway. While the Minotaurus was taken out of service in 1867 and scrapped in 1871, the Ajax continued to run for much longer. Its tank was replaced in the 1850s and 1860s, and it was also given a new tender, manufactured by the Vienna-Gloggnitz Railway’s engine works. After being taken out of service in 1874, the Ajax was not scrapped but simply stored in an engine shed, where it was rediscovered many years later. In 1911 it made its way to the Austrian Railway Museum, whose holdings were subsequently transferred to the Technical Museum in Vienna. Following an expert restoration in 2006, the historic Ajax steam train together with its no. 37 tender nowadays has a fixed place in the Technical Museum and is now being featured as the first design of the new-look “Railways” series.

The Ajax has a 0-4-2 configuration and a gauge of 1,435 millimetres. It is 12.2 metres long, 2.3 metres wide and 4.85 metres tall, weighing 19.2 tonnes. Its tender, with an unloaded weight of 9.5 tonnes, can hold around 4.7 cubic metres of water and 2.5 cubic metres of coal.

Series: Railways
Graphic design: Roland Vorlaufer
Value: 1.00 euros
Pre-issue day: 02.10.2026
First day of issue: 03.10.2026
First day: 8680 Mürzzuschlag
Stamp size: 45.00 x 29.47 mm
Perforation measurement: 13¼ x 13½
Printing: Cartor Security Printers
Printing technique: Offset printing
Quantity: 150,000 stamps on sheets of 50
Order no: 226390

Coffee bean - Coffee-scented post

With this fragrant stamp, Austrian Post is once again setting new standards in the particularly innovative design of stamps.

Coffee is indispensable for many people – whether drunk early in the morning to wake them up or as a reviving aromatic drink throughout the day. But once the coffee has been drunk, we are left with the coffee grounds, a valuable material that it is a shame to just throw away. Dried coffee grounds can be scattered as fertiliser and also help ward off various pests, as well as being used in cosmetics as peelings or in soap to neutralise odours, for example.

Coffee leather can also be made from the grounds, and it is from this that this original stamp block is made. For this, fine, dried coffee grounds were sieved onto a natural fleece, sprayed with an ecological binding agent and pressed into a thin sheet in multiple stages. This vegan coffee leather is flexible and tear-resistant, and, what is more, not only does it have the slightly grainy texture of ground coffee, but it also naturally smells of coffee. After printing, an adhesive film was applied and the stamp cut out in the shape of a coffee bean. The narrow stripe down the centre represents the groove that is typical for a coffee bean, while also reminding us of the delicious aroma of a bowl of hot coffee. Upcycling thus turned coffee grounds that had been collected from offices and hospitals into a new philatelic product that will add a hint of that delicious coffee smell to every item of post and delight everyone, not just coffee drinkers.

Series: Special technical features
Graphic design: Anja Derkits
Value: 6.70 euros
Pre-issue day: 01.10.2026
First day of issue: 01.10.2026
First day: 1030 Vienna
Stamp size: 33.00 x 43.00 mm
Perforation measurement: ----
Printing: Variuscard Produktions- und Handels GmbH
Printing technique: DTF transfer printing 
Quantity: 80,000 commemorative miniature sheets of 1 unit each
Order no: 226470

Landesgalerie Niederösterreich - Architecture and art

This year’s design in the “Modern architecture in Austria” series features an innovative architectural gem in the form of the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich (regional gallery of Lower Austria).

The Landesgalerie Niederösterreich is part of the Krems Art Mile ensemble. Thanks to its location in Krems an der Donau, at the entrance to the UNESCO Wachau Cultural Landscape world heritage site, it forms an interface between the old town and the mighty river. The gallery houses art treasures belonging to the federal province of Lower Austria and is a place where Austrian artists are represented, although projects by international artists are also exhibited. The art collection comprises around 100,000 objects, with a particular focus on art from the 19th century through to contemporary works. 

The spectacular building was built in 2016 to plans by the architectural firm marte.marte architects from Vorarlberg. In their design, the architects Bernhard and Stefan Marte combined the traditional with the modern. The building impresses with its dynamic spiral form: a cube that is rotating upon itself and tapers towards the top. It is to this rotation and its façade of matte silver-grey zinc tiles, which are reminiscent of sequins, that the museum owes its nickname “the dancer from Krems”. Whichever angle you view it from, you get a different view. Wide arching windows on the ground floor ensure plenty of light, while after ascending four floors you can go out onto the terrace, where you get a wonderful view over the town of Stein and across the Danube to Göttweig Abbey. The walls inside the building are also curved, thereby retaining the dynamic sense of space.

Series: Modern architecture in Austria
Graphic design: Karin Klier
Value: 3.50 euros
Pre-issue day: 02.10.2026
First day of issue: 29.10.2026
First day: 3100 St. Pölten
Stamp size: 34.80 x 42.00 mm
Perforation measurement: 13¾ x 14¼
Printing: Joh. Enschedé Stamps B.V.
Printing technique: Offset printing
Quantity: 110,000 stamps on sheets of 50
Order no: 226430

Austrian Post - Always there when you need it!

As part of the “Classical trademarks” series, this time Austrian Post is presenting itself, because the post horn and the yellow postal livery colour are simply unmistakeable. 

The history of the Austrian postal service stretches back into the 15th century, when Emperor Maximilian I set up the first mounted courier service, which was also permitted to convey private missives. The postillion announced his arrival and departure by blowing on his post horn. During the 18th century the mail coach became the first regular form of public transport, and finally, in 1850, the first Austrian stamps were issued. These small but artistic postage stamps remain the central focus of the Philatelic Department to this day.

But much has changed since then. The range of services offered by the post office has grown considerably – as is also reflected in the design on the stamp, in which many little icons represent the various services offered by Austrian Post. From being simply a logistics service provider, Austrian Post has become a provider of essential services: it not only produces innovative stamps and reliably transports letters and packages around the world, but it also offers financial services via bank99 and, since this year, also internet and mobile telephony services with YELLLOW – and this both digitally and in person in post offices and partner businesses. However, what has not changed is the traditional yellow colour – “postal yellow” being a trademarked colour nowadays – or the stylised post horn as the Austrian Post logo.

Series: Classical trademarks
Graphic design: Sascha Schaberl
Value: 1.25 euros
Pre-issue day: 02.10.2026
First day of issue: 09.10.2026
First day: 1030 Vienna
Stamp size: 45.00 x 31.90 mm
Perforation measurement: 13¼ x 13¾
Printing: Joh. Enschedé Stamps B.V.
Printing technique: Offset printing
Quantity: 170,000 stamps on sheets of 50
Order no: 226400

300th anniversary of the death of Jakob Prandtauer - The Baroque master

Jakob Prandtauer is considered the most significant builder of monasteries of his time. On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of his death, he is being celebrated with a commemorative stamp featuring Melk Abbey.

Jakob Prandtauer was born in 1660 in Stanz bei Landeck in Tyrol as the son of a mountain farmer. He trained as a mason and also worked as a sculptor. After his marriage in 1692, he moved to St. Pölten. He was first commissioned with renovation work in the 1690s. His main work is seen as the building of the abbey church and the entire monastery complex in Melk, which he worked on from 1702 until his death. He died in 1726 in St. Pölten.

Alongside Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt, Jakob Prandtauer is considered one of the most important architects and master builders of the Baroque period in Austria. Prandtauer was mainly involved in the building of monasteries, but also built village churches, palaces, bridges and garden and pleasure houses, many of them in the St. Pölten area. His best-known works include newbuilds and renovations, especially in Melk, Herzogenburg, Seitenstetten, St. Florian, Garsten, Klosterneuburg and Dürnstein abbeys as well as the Christkindl and Sonntagberg pilgrimage churches, sometimes also working with other builders such as his nephew and pupil Joseph Munggenast. In contrast to many of his colleagues, Prandtauer was able not only to design artistically challenging buildings in his own unmistakeable style but also to carry out and supervise the building work himself with all its technical challenges. 

Graphic design: Karin Klier
Value: 1.55 euros
Pre-issue day: 02.10.2026
First day of issue: 29.10.2026
First day: 3100 St. Pölten
Stamp size: 40.15 x 29.75 mm
Perforation measurement: 11½ x 11½
Printing: bpost Stamps Printing
Printing technique: Offset printing
Quantity: 140,000 stamps on sheets of 50
Order no: 226420

Day of the Stamp 2026 - The world of minerals

Since 1949 Austrian Post has been issuing an annual stamp to celebrate the Day of the Stamp. The supplement charged on the stamp is used to support philately in Austria.

Stamps are not the only things that get collected: minerals do too. That is why the topic “Minerals – Austria’s natural resources” was chosen as the new theme for the Day of the Stamp.

Muscovite mica is depicted on the stamp. It comes from Ambach in the Dunkelsteinerwald in Lower Austria. There is a place, known among collectors as the “Glitzergrube” (glitter pit), where interesting minerals from a pegmatite mine can be found. Pegmatite is a coarse-grained igneous rock that can contain not only muscovite but also other minerals such as feldspar, rock crystal, tourmaline and biotite. Muscovite is a commonly occurring mineral in the mica family. It is light-coloured and shimmers with a flaky structure. The table-like crystals can be split into very thin transparent sheets. In the past, huge sheets of muscovite were used as a substitute for fireproof glass, including in Moscow, hence its name, which is derived from “Muscovite glass”. Nowadays, due to its good electrical and thermal insulation properties, muscovite is used in electrical engineering and as an additive in heat-resistant construction materials. When finely ground, it is used as a pearlescent pigment in cosmetics and in automotive paints. The muscovite depicted in gouache on the stamp is part of a stratum that also contains feldspar and quartz, with the typical shape of the crystal and the schematic crystal lattice also shown.

Graphic design: Anita Kern
Value: 4.50 euros (premium: 2.25 euros)
Pre-issue day: 02.10.2026
First day of issue: 29.10.2026
First day: 3100 St. Pölten
Stamp size: 42.00 x 33.35 mm
Small sheet size: 114.00 x 130.05 mm
Perforation measurement: 14¼ x 13¾
Printing: Joh. Enschedé Stamps B.V.
Printing technique: Offset printing
Quantity: 110,100 on small sheets of 6 units each
Order no: 226410
Small sheet order no: 226800