Fritz Billig

Billig in later life.
A Fritz Billig bookplate.

Fritz F. Billig (1902 – 1986)[1] was a Viennese philatelist and stamp dealer who fled to the United States after the Austrian anschluss in 1938 and continued his career from Jamaica, New York. There he published a successful and long-running series of philatelic handbooks that are still regularly referred to by philatelists today.

He appears in the 1938 Blue Book of Philately where his address is given as 1 Herreng 6/4, Vienna, Austria.[2]

During World War II, Billig temporarily changed his name to Fritz Billings in order to avoid anti-German sentiment current at the time.[1]

Prizes won for Billig publications included a Silver Medal at the Jubilee exhibition in Budapest 1934, the Prize of Honor at NABA Zurich 1934 and a Bronze Medal at OSTROPA 1935.[3]

For a time Billig operated an auction firm in conjunction with Fred Rich as Billig & Rich Inc. at 55 West 42nd Street in New York.

In the late 1960s, the firm HJMR Co. of Miami Beach, Florida, acquired and reprinted the Billig Handbooks.

Publications as author or publisher

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Biographies of Philatelists & Dealers, Brian J. Birch, Vol 1, 2008, p.212. Internet download only.
  2. The Blue Book of Philately: "Who's Who" in the Stamp World. 2nd edition. New York: H.L. Lindquist, 1938, p.49.
  3. Source: Advertisement in Billig's Specialized Catalogues, Vol. 6, p.167.

External links