Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány Évkönyve, 1998

Rövid tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven

public in the form of duties. The carriers of the letters were responsible for collecting the postage charges. Letters were taken to and brought from the Ónod post office twice a week.

In 1767 the alispán (sub-prefect) of Borsod county submitted a petition to the Governing Council for Miskolc to be included in the postal coach route between Buda, Eger and Kassa. However, neither the route nor the Miskolc post office was set up at that time. The only change that occurred was the appointment by the Kassa postal administration of a letter-collector in Miskolc, in the person of József Órássy, at the beginning of 1784. In January 1790, shortly before the Miskolc Post Office opened, the Ónod postmaster’s issuer, György Török, franked the letters as post despatcher.

There were eight applicants for the post of Miskolc postmaster. None got the job, which was awarded to cavalry sergeant-major László Bakos of Osgyán, who had been retired disabled. The Miskolc Post Office opened on 1 September 1790. Post in the office, which was open daily from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m, and then from 2 to 6 p.m, was handled by Postmaster Bakos’ employee, György Török. Financial difficulties soon caused Bakos to exchange his post for one at the smaller post office of Szikszó. In 1793, the Miskolc Post Office was headed by József Szedliczky, former postmaster of Ónod. In 1795 he took a petition for better location of the postal station and the longstanding issue of provision of postal lands to the county assembly.

Although he did not receive a permanent grant of land, József Szedliczky did acquire a suitable building, beside the new road to Tetemvár. Land was only granted in 1818, and from then on the Miskolc postmasters rented postal land and grazing for the token annual rent of 1 gold piece until 1913.

József Szedliczky passed his title to the post office to his son István on 1 January 1818. He paid his father’s unpaid postal charges, thus enabling him to receive the county appointment in 1820. In 1829, István Szedlicky sold his Miskolc post for 12,000 Ft to András Duronelli, who passed it on to his son Alajos in 1845.

The postal regulations during the reform period divided postal carriage services into two: the regular ordinári, and the occasional staféta. The ordináris ran along set routes at fixed times, and the stafétas ran to the order of passengers or cargo carriers. The letter post services carried letters, printed matter (books, journals, newspapers, musical scores, etchings and lithographs), but where there was no postal coach service, it also carried money and parcels. The tariffs and means of payment in letter post also changed frequently. Between 1751 and 1817, the “half-postage" system prevailed, by which half was paid by the sender and the other half by the addressee. In 1817, alternative postage was introduced. The sender paid the entire postage for letters abroad or recommended or registered post. This is when the first mailboxes appeared. “Letters for which the postage shall only be paid on delivery may be placed in certain boxes in post offices at any time while the post office is open. ” Their use was made compulsory in post offices in 1830, at the same time as house delivery of letters was introduced. Even so, the sender could prescribe that the letter be held in the post office as post restante.

Post stations still held many privileges at the beginning of the 19th century: they were exempted from military billeting, public work and payment of customs, bridge tolls and ferry fares, and in token of this they bore the imperial crest.

In 1825, the Austrian postal coach administration introduced a new, scheduled rapid

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