2025125 Year Anniversary of the Discovery of Blood Groups - Set

The distinction between the four blood groups A, B, AB and O was a groundbreaking medical discovery that has saved countless lives.

Karl Landsteiner (1868–1943) was an Austrian physician and immunologist who, in 1900, discovered the existence of different blood groups: A, B, and C – the latter being what we now know as blood group O. The AB group was identified shortly afterwards. Incompatible blood transfusions occur because antibodies are formed against antigens that are not present in the recipient’s own blood. Blood group O contains no antigens, making people with this blood type universal donors. In 1930, Landsteiner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He also contributed to research on poliomyelitis, syphilis, and typhus, and described the importance of the Rhesus factor in blood transfusions. To this day, blood donations are irreplaceable – nothing can substitute human blood. The stamp design shows the compatible recipients along the top edge, and the possible donors on the left.