EMINENT PHILATELISTS IV

In the “Eminent Philatelists” series, Magyar Posta is commemorating Frigyes Mirkó Poppovits with its next thematic personalised stamp. Nine thousand one hundred copies of the stamp with a label designed by the graphic artist Imre Benedek were produced.

Frigyes Mirkó Poppovits (Zimony, 1863 - Budapest, 1928), after completing his studies at the Commercial Academy in Zagreb, became a bank clerk in Vienna and then the head of department at a textile company. After his appointment as deputy director of the textile factory, he soon rose to the office of director in the Austrian capital. He was not yet thirty years old when he settled in Budapest as a renowned and acknowledged trader. In 1906, the minister of trade, Ferenc Kossuth, appointed him chairman of the Committee for the Trade and Evaluation of Hungarian Goods and commercial counsellor. On his sixtieth birthday, he also received the title of principal counsellor. Besides his responsible job, he was a passionate stamp collector. He was awarded the grand gold medal for his collection of Hungarian philatelic rarities at the 1909 First Hungarian National Stamp Exhibition and then at the 1911 International Exhibition in Vienna.
Poppovits was the first Hungarian collector who, refusing all foreign purchase offers, donated his entire collection to Hungarian philately, which formed the basis of the Hungarian collection of the Stamp Museum.
The label for the stamp shows a portrait of Frigyes Mirkó Poppovits with a montage compiled from the rarities donated by him in the background.