a Weak post

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First I want to say that in this post I will make some experiments with the new Scanner... the scans could not be the best, because I have to try different resolutions and first I need to understand the way of correctly working with this new device...

I have selected some stamps from Hungary ,Romania and Danzig...

HUNGARY

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I choose to present today some very famous designs from Hungary... some are normal definitive stamps and others are overprinted stamps...

These are stamps from the King Charles IV and Queen Zita  Series...the Queen's design is without doubts one of my favorite portraits..all the stamp, frames included , is very well accomplished.. the designs are work of  Imre Foldes (1881/1948) , an important  Graphic Designer that distinguished himself in the creation of Poster's and illustration of books...

These and other stamps I will present , are from a lot I bought some time ago and sometimes they present rust spots .. this is not a great problem for me , but it decrease the value of the stamps (not this one's , of course, because they don't value nothing..!)... the 20f stamp is missing...

1918 "King Charles IV and Queen Zita" (6) [Des (Imre Foldes)][Typo] Sc(127,128,130,131,132)

These are stamps from the first series where this famous design of Odon Tull appeared.. the series is complete and is commonly known as "Harvesting Wheat"..the design is repeated in future series until 1923 (the series was issued in 1916 , already after the Death of the Artist, in 1911..) This small series is different from the others because the numerals appear in white color...there are other series with numerals in the main color of the stamp, or in black..)
1916 "Harvesting Wheat" (2) [Des (Odon Tull)][Typo] Sc(106,107)

These are some of the most famous stamps from Hungary, with the beautiful design of the Parliament building...there are several series with this design , normal and overprinted... the design started to be issued in 1916 and the Country label was altered with the changes in the Political System...at first , in the 1916/1918 series we have something we can call the "Monarchic" label 'Magyar Kir. Posta'... then in the 1919/1920 the label was simply 'Magyar Posta' as we enter a very small  Republican period, because in the next issue of 1920/1924 we already have again the label 'Magyar Kir. Posta'...some changes in the small square where the currency label appears... we must  always have a look to the existence or not of double frame in the square, to the square's background color and to the color of the label itself.. this aspects could change with each new issue... I will not enter in further considerations about these and other aspects (watermarks, etc..) , that only were interesting in a post dedicated to this series only...
1916/1918 "Parliament Building" (19) [Des (Vilmos Brandmayer)][Typo] Sc(119,120,121,123,125,126)

Now I have some Overprinted stamps...

As in many other Countries, during the transition from a monarchic System to a Republican one , an Overprint  "Republic" is used to give time to the issue of new Republican stamps, and to allow the Postal Services to end the stock of  Monarchic stamps in circulation...these are two series with that Overprint ("Koztarsasag" ).. the first series is the one presented above, with King Charles  and Queen Zita, and the other , a beautiful War Charity Series ( shown in other previous post...) 1918 "Overprint 'Republic' on 'King Charles IV and Queen Zita'" (6) [Des (Imre Foldes)][Typo]  Sc(168,169,170,171,173)
1918 "War Charity" (3) [Des (Jeno Haranghy)(J. Diveky)][Typo] Sc(B58,...,B60)


DANZIG
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I will show some AIR MAIL stamps from Danzig, representative of the several series issued ...

stamps from the 2nd and 3rd Air Mail series... the first series (I don't present any stamp of this series..) doesn't have a particular design, it is assembled by previous stamps Surcharged and overprinted with Air motifs...the 2nd series has stamps with 2 of the different formats shown above... the Wmk is a also a key factor in the classification...(in this 2nd series the Wmk is known as 'Honeycomb' and is vertically oriented..).. the 3rd series presents us the 3 different formats and the wmk is similar ( not equal..) but horizontally oriented..other aspect I should highlight is that the small formats have always perforation 14 and the medium and large formats present a 13.5 perforation...
now the stamps shown above...1st Group] 1)2) two different shades of blue Green from the 2nd series Sc(C4,C4) ..3)4) two identical stamps from the 3rd series Sc(C14,C14)  2nd Group] 1)2) 3rd series Sc(C16,C17) 3rd Group] 1)2) 3rd series Sc(C18,C19)
1921/1922 "Airplane over Danzig" (6) [Des (Max Buchholz)][Typo]
1923 "Airplane over Danzig" (12) [Des (Max Buchholz)][Typo] 

Danzig stamps designed by Max Buchholz 

These are stamps from the next Air Mail series to be issued, in 1923..the 250000m  is missing in this 2 stamps series..
1923 "Post horn and Airplane" (2) [Typo] Sc(C23)

two stamps are missing in this 1924 series...the higher value of this series ( that is missing) is from a larger format... I don't have proofs that the last series and this one are also work of Max Buchholz , but  the general traces of his design at this time are here...two spare stamps are also presented, with some light differences in color...
1924 "Airplane over Danzig" (5) [Typo] Sc(C27,...,C29)

1935 "Airplane" (5) [Typo] Sc(C36,...,C39)

To finish this small part of the post dedicated to Danzig stamps, here it is a complete series of the Anti Cancer Campaign, with pictures of Medical Scientists... the Scientists represented are : 1) Gregor Mendel 2) Robert Koch 3) Wilhelm Konrad Runtgen

1939 "Anti Cancer Campaign" (3) [Photo] Sc(238,239,240)

ROMANIA

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stamps from a series honoring King Ferdinand... it is another one of the many series designed by Ludovic Bassarab , one of the Greatest Romanian stamp Designers... there is one value missing, this time the lowest ..sometimes it is hard to understand what is the reference point chosen by the catalogs to give the color attribute to a stamp... this is really a problem because two different catalogs give sometimes two different colors to the same stamp... the references could be the portrait backgrounds, the numeral backgrounds, the numeral itself, the frame lines, etc.. it is important to understand in each series what is the reference point  used by the catalog we are using... [ I think this should be a minor problem to the most part of you , but I work with many catalogs and the differences between them alerted me for it's existence...]
1926 "60th Birthday of King Ferdinand" (10) [Des (Ludovic Bassarab)][Photo (A. Bruckmann, Munich)] Sc(291,...,300)

1941 "Red Cross Fund" (5) [Photo] Sc(B164,...,B168)

OK..this is the end of the post... I am currently thinking in some changes in the frequency and size of the posts... perhaps in the following weeks some news will be available..

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Germania

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A few stamps 'German related' are presented today.. some Colonial and  Occupation stamps ...We will start in the Beginning of the XX century, with some colonial stamps and then walk through the 1914/1918 Great WWI and see some stamps from the German occupation of Belgium...in the end we have the period of time where Germany was divided by the Allies and the highlight will be in the French sector with some stamps from Rhine Palatinate...Between wars , we have Danzig stamps...

This post will look like a Geography lesson, and will be much helpful even for me , because I'm studying these maps , as I am showing them to you...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_German_colonies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_colonial_empire

In the map we can clearly see the African Possessions (German East Africa and German SW Africa) and some of the Possessions in the Pacific Ocean (German Samoa and German New Guinea)..

The first stamps I will show belong to a series that we can call a Colonial series.. the same stamps were issued in all the colonies with the name of the different territories...here we have five of these stamps, representing five Colonies.. the stamp itself represents the Kaiser's Yacht 'Hohenzollern'.. it is a beautiful stamp , very well designed  

In the classification of this series we must have in mind that it is composed by two different designs.. this one, used with the low values in pf and the other one (not presented... a larger stamp...) that is engraved (while the low values are always Typo Printed..) and used with the high M values ...there are always two series of these stamps, the 1st, not Wmk and the 2nd Wmk with lozenges; in the German East Africa case , the series in pf/M  was not issued being replaced by a series in pesa (p) /Rupie (R) and there is an additional Unwmk series expressed in 'Heller' (h)/Rupie (R) ; the Wmk series is also in h/R...

1) German East Africa 1905 "Kaiser's Yacht 'Hohenzollern' (1905)" (8) [Typo] Sc(24)

2) German New Guinea 1900 "Kaiser's Yacht 'Hohenzollern' (1900)" (13) [Typo] Sc(8)

3) German Samoa 1901 "Kaiser's Yacht 'Hohenzollern' (1901)" (13) [Typo] Sc(59)

4) German SW Africa 1906 "Kaiser's Yacht 'Hohenzollern' (1906)" (4) [Wmk][Typo] Sc(27)

5) Cameroun 1900 "Kaiser's Yacht 'Hohenzollern' (1900)" (13) [Typo] Sc(8)

This is one of the many versions of this famous German stamp, commonly known as 'Germania' .. it was issued , in it's original form , for the first time in 1899/1900... it was designed by Paul Waldraff , based in a portrait of the German Actress Anna Fuhring... this particular group of stamps was issued during the German Occupation of Belgium in the WWI years ., ; i needed almost 10 minutes to understand what was the difference between the first group of 3 stamps and the others... it is strange how we sometimes do not see what lies right in front of our eyes...there were three different issues of these stamps... the 1st in 1914 (1st group of 3) presents us the Surcharge in 'Centimes'..the 2nd in 1916/1918 , in "Cent" (all the others) and the 3rd in 1916 , where the label "Belgien" is omitted and the surcharge presented also in "Cent"..

1) German Occupation of  Belgium Stamps 1914 "Surcharge in 'Centimes' over 'Germania' stamps" (9) [Des (Paul Waldraff)][Typo] Sc(N2,N3,N4)

 2) German Occupation of Belgium stamps 1916/1918 "Surcharge in 'Cent' over 'Germania' stamps" (16) [Des (Paul Waldraff)][Typo] Sc(N10,...,N18)

The city of Danzig and it's surroundings had already in the past some autonomy, due to it's important and strategic highly developed port..in 1920 , and after the WWI, it was granted to the City some Autonomy, and with the special condition of not be a part neither of Germany neither of Poland , but it had to grant access to it's Port to Poland.. It was then named "Free City of Danzig" (it was not a independent Country and remained with the League of Nations Protection..).. the city, Historically had a great majority of German citizens..

these are stamps from the 1st series from Danzig.. this series is constituted by Typo printed 'Germania' stamps for the lower values (pf)(and for the 4M value..)  and recess Printed larger stamps with various designs for some of the higher values (M).. The  2M stamp represent the Allegory of the Union of South and North Germany.. in the 5M stamp ,Wilhelm II is speaking in the 25th Empire Anniversary Celebration..All of this stamps are German stamps and are all Overprinted with "Danzig" and are wmk.. 

1920 "Overprint 'Danzig' over German stamps" (15) [Engr (Prof. W. Roese)][Recess 2M,5M][Typo /others] Sc(4,11,14,15)

There isn't not much to say about this Coat of Arms series..I must specify that some values could appear in pale yellow paper and with slight variations [interruptions..(??)] in the perforation.. there are different cv values for these cases..all of these stamps appear to me as being in the class of the 'normal one's' .... there is , however something I want to talk about... I use 3 catalogs in much part of the cases , to have a better understanding of the series and all that  is attached to the particularities of the stamps...I use SG paper catalogs, old and new ones, Scott World 2009 and SG My Collection online, just to have a look in today's (2012,12013...) cv ...for my surprise , the blue & Red 50pf stamp appears in SG My collection as having the cv of £ 170.00.. I found no reason at all to this  fact in other catalogs (SG included.. for Danzig i work with a 70's paper catalog..).. the Sc, don't give the stamp a special value so I don't know in this point in what to believe...[ I must consult a Danzig specialized catalog.!..]..perhaps some of you can highlight me in this particular point..! (Please, always feel free to comment...)..

1924/1939 "Coat of Arms" (23) [Des (M. Buchholz)][Typo] Sc(168a,170,171,173,173c,175,176,177,181,183,184,186,187,191)

Allied Sectors in Germany

Rhineland Palatinate 

Now, let's back to Geography... in the end of  WWII, Germany was divided in sectors , among the powers that had fought in the War.. so there were 4 main sectors and several little one's.. there were a Russian , USA, UK and French sectors.. (map at the left...)... the map of the right show us The Rhineland Palatinate, one of the zones of the French sector and the one responsible for the stamps I have to show now..it is curious that this region is today one of the main regions of Germany , voted in referendum in 1947... 

The series I present now is issued with different designs in Baden and Wuttenburg, other regions of the French Sector..The design is work of the Lithuania Designer Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas who later in his life went to the USA, and acquired also the American Nationality..these are indeed beautiful stamps ...

Well,what do We have to say about this series..?? the series has 12 different designs and  it was issued 3 times with light differences.. 1] the first issue (first 3 groups) is labeled in pf and M 2] 2nd issue (4th and 5th groups) has new colors and sometimes designs with different values, but what is important in this issue is the coexistence of currency labels pf ,dpf and DM (5 values in dpf and one in DM) 3] 3rd issue ( 6th group) is easily recognized , because it don't present any currency label, only the value.. 

Caution is required in what concerns the Karl Marx stamps of this series, because there could be a variant due to a small difference in the 'K' of 'Karl Marx' ..

I'm going to leave here some clues about the designs..1) Beethoven 2) Baron Von Ketteler, Bishop of Mainz 3) Girl picking grapes 4) Porta Nigra,Trier 5) Karl Marx 6) Cathedral of Worms 7) Guttenberg 8) Cathedral at Mainz 15)Rocks at Arnweiler 19) Street Corner , St. Martin

A) [First 3 Groups] 1947/1948 "Various Designs" (15) [Design (Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas)][Photo (F. Burda , Offenburg)] Sc(6N1,...,6N5,6N8,6N9,6N11)

  B) [4th and 5th Groups] 1948 "Various Designs" (14) [Des (Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas)][Photo (F. Burda,Offenburg)] Sc(6N16,6N17,6N19,6N20,6N22,6N24,6N26)

C) [6th Group] 1948/1949 "Various Designs" (10) [Des (Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas)][Photo (F. Burda, Offenburg)] Sc(6N31,6N34,6N35)

I've got many more stamps from Danzig and some more from the other zones of the French Sector, but I'll present them in another future post...

I wnat to say some words about something I said above in this post... I use the My collection SG Catalog, just to have cv relatively actual, but I want to say that it is not one of my main interests in Collecting stamps.. the cv has it's importance specially because of everything that concerns with varieties and unusual events that could exist  with stamps.. For me collecting is just ... having stamps..The more, the better...!!

Well, I think I reach the end of this post.. hope you like it and that it could be helpful in some way...

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