World or Country

New Entries

As I said last week , our focus today is on the Italy 1906/1927  King Victor Emmanuel III Series.. first I just want to write some words about the quality of the stamps I use to present in this blog.. I know sometimes the stamps are not in the Best condition, with perforation problems, heavily canceled or just in General 'Bad shape'..this happens because of two main aspects: 1st) I really don't have the money to buy MNH in any kind of  auction, because as you all know classical and semi classical stamps are sometimes expensive or very expensive (in this condition..)..2nd) and this is the main reason : I am a world collector of stamps.. I do not wish to enter in excessive detail about any of the stamps I have and care.. I leave that for those who collect  just one or two countries.. It is that their main task.. to dig, search and know more and more about their election Countries Philately...I only want to have the stamps ( if in good condition, better!.) and have a general idea of the main issues of that country, it's printing preferences, the main series, the history, all of this to get an approximate idea of the "Big Picture" for the various periods of Time ...I could say that at this time I prefer quantity to quality, because in the future I can replace those stamps who are in bad condition .. and now You could ask, "Why don't you end , like everybody, this period of World collecting.. this way You will not end anything!" Yes, I could not end , entire countries, or even the periods I like the most in each country, but just from the start, I just wish to end series..! that's my main goal.. to end series! since the beginning, this all idea of World collecting was so serious that even the way I place the stamps in the Stock Albums is for you chaotic.. there is no countries, no years, no ideology, no boundaries , just ended series, one after the other, from different countries, all together... If I wanted to finish this way of seeing things , I would have an enormous work ahead of me..! so , I just continue..!

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

King Victor Emmanuel III was born in 1869 and died in 1947..He had a long Reign (1900/1946) , and during all that time many things Happened.. Two world Wars, The rise and Fall of Mussolini's Fascism, The invasion of Ethiopia and Albania, etc...We could say that the series we will focus today was the 2nd series of designs with the King's Portrait...

This is a long series, if we are look at  it's time frame (1906/1927).. The series is composed of 5 different designs...

1st Design) 1906  "Right Portrait of King Victor Emmanuel III" (1) [Des (Francesco Paolo Michetti)][Engr/Recess (L'Officina Calcográfica Italiana, Rome)] Sc(93)

I present here 3 stamps from this individual series (just with one stamp) , just to show that there could be some differences in the shades of the background sky and sea colors..

In the classification of this design, we must have caution, because there will be another two, very similar, a redrawn issued in 1909/1916 (Typo) and a 2nd redrawn in 1911 (also a Recess Printing) and we will need to find major differences between them... The first thing we must analyse when he have several of these two similar Recess stamps is the perforation... this first and Original issue has Perf. 12..(it is a distinctive fact...only the 1906 issue has this perforation..).. these stamps could appear printed in thick or thin paper..

[Left] 1906 [Right] 1911

at the [Left] we have a picture focused on the Uniform's Collar of 1906 .. we can see that in it's right side (closer to the viewer...) it presents us a Star and in the other side something other than a star..

At the [Right] we can see the 1911 Uniform's Collar with two stars , one in each side of it..

At a first look , the crown seems identical in both issues, but in  a closer view we can start detecting differences..the 1906  Crown presents a very well defined and beautiful cross above the Crown; the Crown's design is much more detailed and perfect...the design in it's general is different in both cases..  

At the [Left] again, I want to highlight the number of lines that we can see departing from the back-most  part at the top of the white shirt...if we count the lines upwards we see 6 visible and well defined lines until we reach the ear..

in the 1911 issue , at the [Right] we see 8 clearly visible and well defined lines..

1st Design 1st Redrawn) 1909/1916 "Right Portrait of King Victor Emmanuel III" (2) [Des (Francesco Paolo Michetti)][Die Engr (Alberto Repetatti)][Typo (Officina Carte Valori, Torino)] Sc(112)

I don't have specific data about this , but in this small sample of 1916 stamps the paper is thin.. Unfortunately i don't have any stamp of 15c from 1909, because I would have all the Printings of the Slate 15c(1906,1909,and 1911)... Now to distinguish these typo stamp from the other two , it is very simple...

This typo issue have a very distinctive mark , and it is related with the Sun and the Crown... in this case , The sun touches the Superior frame, and in the other two cases , as you can see above, there is always a space between the sun and the frame...The Crown is also different from the other two, very similar to the 1906 issue but without the beautiful Cross in the top ( it has just a small cross, like in the 1911 issue..).. The Perforation is 13.5 or 14 ; the design is slightly smaller than the original (23mm instead of 25mm)

1st Design 2nd Redrawn) 1911 "Right Portrait of King Victor Emmanuel III" (1) [Des (Francesco Paolo Michetti)][Recess(Officina Carte Valori, Torino)] Sc(123)

These are some of the 1911 stamps , with background sky and sea with different shades and luminosity... Perforation could be 13.5 or 14 [ the design has 24mm instead of 25mm of the original]

2nd/3rd Design) 1906/1919 "Left Portrait of King Victor Emmanuel III" (3) [Des (Alberto Repettati)][Typo (Officina Carte Valori ,Torino)] Sc(94,95,96)

With this series , we return to a more classic approach , with the stamp again divided into Portrait and Frame ( a very classical one..).. These are both designs of Alberto Repettati, one of the major Italian Engravers...I am talking here of 2 designs because as You can see the 5c and 15c have one design and the 10c another one, differing in several points of the frame.. I have to say that the 5 and 10c were issued in 1906 and the 15c in 1919..

you can see by these pictures, that the frames differ in the upper corners, in the space connecting the two labeled interior frames, and in the Currency label, with the 10c closer to the exterior frame line  

Here are some of the color varieties in the 5c and 10c stamps.. in the 5c , we clearly see the light Green, the yellow green , the blue Green( a dull blue green..)  and the Normal Green and perhaps some intermediate colors.. in the 10c , we can see the claret, the rose, perhaps a red rose, and others.. I had more stamps to present but I only choose the more representative of something near a color variety...

4th/5th Designs) 1908/1927 "Left Portrait King Victor Emmanuel III" (14) [Des (Francesco Paolo Michetti)][Typo (OCV,Torino)] Sc(99,100,101,...,107,109)

The difference between these two designs is documented in the 2 pictures above..  The upper frame of the stamp has colored solid background and letters in white, or the upper frame has solid white background with letters of the color of the stamp...There are some stamps missing , but I also have some color variations..

Well, it is the end of this post...I've got nothing more to tell about these stamps.. sorry if there is any imprecision ... please comment if  You want.. Comments are always welcome..!

SeeYou