Great Britain [4th Post]

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I have stored some British Queen Victoria stamps in the last few years ,but I only have classified those of the Jubilee issue ...I haven't tried yet to complete any of the many series available,but only stored them as they come ...two days ago I've decided to finally start to classify them...like many other stamps from early days,these QV stamps need some reading to began entering in their world,full of complex and simple details...

As always I'll use the Sc catalog codes,but this time I will use the SG as reference to the size of the series, varieties, etc...

When we are standing in front of a British QV stamp, we have to mentally give a number of small and easy steps :

A) to see if the stamp has letters in the corners...

AA) in the 4 corners

AB) just in the lower 2 corners

AC) no letters

AD) Large letters

AE) small letters

AF) white letters
AG) colored letters

small colored letters 2 corners

Large colored letters in the 4 corners

No Letters

Large white letters in the 4 corners

Before continuing I must remember that I am a World collector, so my urgency in having the best items is not great.. In my collection there is plenty of space for others "garbage" ,so You must not be surprised by rust spots or stamps sometimes in very bad condition...Another important thing to remember is that a well centered stamp has increased value...
The use of letters in the corners of the stamps begins with the famous "Penny Black" and only ends with the QV Jubilee Issue of 1887... during this time the rule was to have letters in the corners, yet,a few stamps do not present them but are very well identified and known... 

B) other distinctive mark presented in many of QV stamps is the plate number..this number sometimes increase the value of the stamp...it is known that catalogs show us in general the lowest value possible, but stamps of some plates will have it's value highly increased.

 

White letters and Plate Number

Colored letters and Plate Number

No letters, No Plate Number

Perforations only have a major role in the first QV issues (from 1858 until 1887 the perforation is 14 ,with 2 or 3 exceptions well known..),but the "Key" distinctive fact is the Wmk (C)..there are 14 possible wmks in all QV issues from 1840 to 1887 and it is crucial that we are able to identify them correctly ...fortunately ,it seems that in most cases it is very easy to see the wmk without instruments or chemical processes...

Now ,some words about another famous QV stamp : the "Penny Lilac" 

this stamp differs from the other famous Penny stamps (Black, Red and Venetian Red) not only on the form of the vignette's frame (squared frame in the previous..) but in the labels surrounding the portrait.. (instead of the 'Postage' and 'One Penny' labels , the Lilac Penny presents ' Postage and Inland Revenue' and 'One Penny')..It is known that the lilac ink used in these printings was very fugitive ,so it not strange to find all these different shades in used and washed stamps...in my opinion ,from this five stamps the one that is closer to the original,but yet very far is the first one...the color used was darker and brighter...

Two different types exist ,depending on the number of full 'Perls' (white circles) in each angle of the stamp... those I have here to present you have 16 and it's cv is minimum...if the stamp has 14 'Perls' then it's cv increases...  




I will present the Sc codes and other technical data of all these stamps in the end of the post... let's now entering in the last two groups of QV stamps :

[Left] As I said before , I'm following a SG catalog and there these stamps belong to the same series, but looking to them we will find that the only common fact is the Queens portrait and the absence of Plate numbers... [Right] one of the few QV surcharged stamps... in fact, when we are talking of common postage stamps,there is just one more ,both issued in 1883...

Now , I have some new entries for the Jubilee issue of 1887...

The only real new entries to the collection are the 5p and 1sh stamps... But I have to remember that the 4p stamp is just "Good".!.. to have a "Good" QV stamp is already a victory for me...in fact the stamp is in reasonable general condition,but it is very well centered...at this time ,the centering factor is not so important as in the early days ,but not all the stamps I have here are so good as this one...
To end the post , and before all the technical data, I have two QEII Commemorative series ,both from 1965...

The commemorative series from Great Britain,are in most cases [Photo] printed,but they continue to be "nice to the eye"...I don't now why , but it must have something to do with the designers... the first QEII series are very beautiful and already in 1965 they continued to surprise us with their appealing simplicity...

1) 1855 "Queen Victoria" (2) [small Crown] [Perf 14] SG(24) Sc(11) [/ This is a very simple approach to the Penny Red,one of the most complex stamps in the world...when I have more of these stamps, I will spent some time learning a more detailed way to classify them/]
2) 1872 "Queen Victoria" (2) [Typo] [Rose Wmk] [plate 16] SG(122b) Sc(59b)
3) 1865 "Queen Victoria" (6) [Typo] [Large Garter Wmk][plate 13] SG(94) Sc(43)
4) 1856 "Queen Victoria" (2) [Typo] [Heraldic Emblems wmk] SG(70) Sc(27)
5) 1867 "Queen Victoria" (6) [Typo] [Rose wmk][plate 9] SG(103) Sc(49)
6) 1880 "Queen Victoria" (6) [Typo] [Imperial Crown wmk][plate 22] SG(157) Sc(82)
7) 1880 "Queen Victoria" (5) [Typo] [Imperial Crown wmk] SG(167) Sc(80)
8) 1881 "Queen Victoria" (2) [Typo] [Imperial Crown wmk] (SG (171) Sc(89)
9) 1884 "Queen Victoria" (10) [Typo] [Imperial Crown wmk] SG(187) Sc(98)
10) 1884 "Queen Victoria" (10) [Typo] [Imperial Crown wmk] SG(188) Sc(99)
11) 1884 "Queen Victoria" (10) [Typo] [Imperial Crown wmk] SG (191) Sc(102)
12) 1883 "Queen Victoria" (5) [Typo] [Imperial Crown wmk][plate 21] SG(159) Sc(94)
13) 14) 1887 "Queen Victoria / Jubilee Series" (14) [Imperial Crown wmk] SG(197) Sc(111)
15) 16) 1900 "Queen Victoria / Jubilee Series" (14) [Imperial Crown wmk] SG(213) Sc(125)
17) 1887 "Queen Victoria / Jubilee Series" (14) [Imperial Crown wmk] SG(198) Sc(112)
18) 19) 20) 21) 1887 "Queen Victoria / Jubilee Series" (14) [Imperial Crown wmk] SG(201) Sc(114)
22) 1887 "Queen Victoria / Jubilee Series" (14) [Imperial Crown wmk] SG(205) Sc(116)
23) 1887 "Queen Victoria / Jubilee Series" (14) [Imperial Crown wmk] SG(207a) Sc(118)

24) 1887 "Queen Victoria / Jubilee Series" (14) [Imperial Crown wmk] SG(211) Sc(122)

25) 26) 1965 "700th Anniversary of the Simon De Monfort's Parliament" (2) [Des (S.R. Black 6d)(Prof. R. Guyatt / after engraving of 1647 2.6sh)][Photo] SG(663,664) Sc(422,423)
27) 28) "Salvation Army Centenary" (2) [Des (M.C. Farrar Bell 3d)(G. Trenaman 1.6sh)][Photo] SG(665,666) Sc(424,425)

Well, I hope you liked this post... it was very amusing to classify these 32 stamps yesterday...

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A common language

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Hello, again... taking advantage of the fact that some of the stamps I have to show today are from Great Britain, I wish to talk a little about the Anglo Saxon culture that is dominant today ..in the end of the 19 Century we still had several languages struggling themselves to reach domination... we add a larger french influence, German , Spanish, Portuguese , English of course, Italian  and others... with the end of WWII , peace was achieved in Europe and the US take a predominant role in International Politics and Commerce with it's Culture being largely broadcast by Cinema , radio and Television.. of course the English language , rapidly dominated all the others, and with Bill Gates computers in the 80's, there was nothing else we can do about it...!! Why can't we just accept the fact ??? don't we need a common language?? Why is the English so bad? for example , it is much easier to learn than my Natal Portuguese or the French..! with my experience in the NET, I found that there are people who still resist ,  always writing and commenting in their languages... with all the respect those people deserve me , to read their blogs or posts , I need to use the Net translators, and it is not the same thing , we all know that..!!! never mind the mistakes You made when You are writing in English, never mind the construction of the phrases, please try it !! We have to catch this ' Train ' !! it is already in movement !! if We don't catch it now we will have to begin searching again for dominance, and worst , we will have to wait for the next train to arrive.!! By accepting English as your current way of communicate with others in the Net, You are not accepting nothing more than that..! You are not accepting Political views or Religious Views.. You are accepting a Fact!!! a fact that will be in the future very difficult to find again... 

Let us now return to the stamps ...

I have some KGVI Great Britain Commemorative stamps, a few stamps from Dominica and Colombia Air Mail stamps...

GREAT BRITAIN

 There are nine commemorative series from King George VI... I have some of them  complete and others with stamps missing... I want to again highlight the obvious fact  that I am a World collector, so by principle I don't mind to much with the general overall aspect of my stamps.. sometimes it is not the desirable , but I cannot have all my stamps in optimal conditions.. that would be unrealistic for me , because there are many, many stamps to collect, beautiful or ugly, expensive or cheap and my finances are not the best part of me..! all the stamps are very common, and almost all of the series have some varieties, and it is a strange fact that those varieties are only accessible for someone who has a Specialized catalog.. ( they are not important varieties, if we speak in it's monetary value, but they should be more of the 'public domain' ..)

this stamp is related to the Coronation of King George VI... it is a single stamp series , but it has many possible varieties...I have 5 similar stamps and I didn't find any of the varieties, so I will not talk more about it.. the stamp is designed by Edmund Dulac... I like to write a few words about Edmund Dulac.. being a French born Citizen , but British Naturalized , he was very important to France and to Great Britain with his stamp designs... during WWII he designed many stamps for the French colonies and even for France (remember the Dulac's Marianne..) but he designed also very important stamps during the reign of KGVI for Great Britain...He was a very interesting link between the UK and France...  

1937 "Coronation of King George VI" (1) [Des (Edmund Dulac)][Photo (Harrison & Sons)] Sc(234)

This is a series commemorating the Allied Victory in the WWII...

1946 "Victory Issue" (2) [Des (H.L. Palmer 2.5d)(Reynolds Stone 3d)][Photo (Harrison & Sons)] Sc(254,255)

this series is incomplete and show us again King and Queen , now some years later...

1948 "Royal Silver Wedding" (2) [Des (G.T. Knipe)][Photo (Harrison & Sons)] Sc(267)

This is a series issued mainly for use in the channel Islands, so it should be considered a Regional Issue... however the stamps were sold in Great Britain , in some of the Head posts of the Royal Mail.. the series commemorates the liberation of the channel Islands..

1948 "Channel Islands Liberation" (2) [Des (J.R.R. Stobie 1d)(E. Blampied 2.5d)][Photo (Harrison & Sons)] Sc(269,270)

another incomplete and beautiful series related this time with the Olympic Games... the stamp designed by Edmund Dulac is the only missing , and at the same time for me the most beautiful of the 4 stamps...

1948 "Olympic Games" (4) [Des (Percy Metcalfe 2.5d)(Abram Games 3d)(Stanley D. Scott 6d)][Photo (Harrison & Sons)] Sc(271,272,273)

between the Olympic Games series and this one, another one commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the UPU was issued...I just got one of those stamps  (series of 4) so I don't present it... this series is the last commemorating series of King George VI reign..

1951 "Festival of Britain" (2) [Des (Edmund Dulac 2.5d)(Abram Games 4d)][Photo (Harrison & Sons)] Sc(290,291)

the two series commonly known as "High Values" (1939 and 1951) are both  [Recess] Printed.. these two stamps are from the 1951 series and they are not in 'the best shape'... both the stamps are designed by Mary Adshead  and printed by Waterlow and Sons..

1951 "High Values / 2nd Series" (4) [Des (Mary Adshead)][Recess (Waterlow and Sons)] Sc(286,287)

DOMINICA

it is not new that some Territories of the Great Empires of those days were in remote zones of the planet or just  one or few from larger groups of islands... so, the fact that I needed to know something more about the location of this Territory from the British empire is , in the end , not a surprise... well, Dominica is the largest of the Windward Islands , southeast of Puerto Rico...

the few stamps I have are from one of the 3 series sharing an original design of 1874 from Queen Victoria (I'm not counting with overprinted or surcharged series...)

another fact that I should not consider strange is that the name of the designer is unknown... many of the Designs with Queen Victoria Portrait s have unknown designers , because the designer was considered to be part of the printing Company or just because in those days this detail simply didn't matter.. this particular stamp is very beautiful and the engraving and printing is good, highly detailed .. we can see this fact by the Queen's Tiara and hair.. 
this time the used stamps have more value than the Mint or unused one's...

The first two stamps were issued in 1883 , the next 3 in 1886 and the last one in 1887..

1883/1888 "Queen Victoria" (9) [Typo (De La Rue)] Sc(16,17,19a)

COLOMBIA

before starting this presentation of some Air Mail Colombian stamps I have to talk about the SCADTA stamps... the task of transporting mail by Air in Colombia was granted to "Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transportes Aéreos".. after sometime working , the company started to have problems due to the large difference of mail arriving and departing Colombia... the quantity of mail arriving to Colombia was considerably larger than the mail that left the country..the SCADTA stamps (the most part designed and printed in Germany) became available in the consular offices of Colombia in foreign countries... so If you want to send mail to Colombia and have a better service , you only needed  to buy those stamps (previously overprinted with the initials of the Country of origin..) in the Colombian Consul Office and glue them in Your letter...the problem is that the system was not perfect and suffered several changes during the years.. this is the main reason of the importance , not only philatelic  , but also monetary of the covers from this period of time that sometimes present a great mix of foreign and SCADTA stamps, turning them in real objects of study for specialized collectors... each period of time had different SCADTA rules .. I left here a site where you can see some of the complexity of all this system and the beauty of the covers...  I also could tell you that Stanley Gibbons has a good section dedicated to these stamps in the  "South America" catalog...
I don't want to enter in further details because i'm not  a collector of these stamps in particular... the stamps I have to present are stamps that were available in Colombia, without overprints..

this single stamp is the only one I've got from the first series of 1921... there is another series with stamps issued from 1923 to 1928, and all the other stamps presented below are from that series...the difference is in the color (green in this case, blue in the next series...) , and in the fact of this first issue has perforation 11.5 (14x14.5 in the 2nd) and no Wmk (the 2nd series presents a Wmk )...The stamps have the label "Servicio Postal Aéreo de Colombia" ...
1921/1923 "Servicio Postal Aéreo de Colombia" (11) [Des (R. Klein)][Litho (Meisenbach Riffart & Co., Munich)] Sc(C29)

Both this series have 2 different designs...i present now the 10c,20c,30c,60c,1P and 2P...there are some spair stamps , just to see that various shades exist from each color...what troubles me it is the last stamp of the 30c I present... it is clearly one shade of Green , but the color should be blue... I think that it is too Green to be blue, but it is not from the 1st series because it has wmk and perf 14x14.5...strange..
This 2nd series has a label "Servicio De Transportes Aéreos En Colombia"
There is another great difference between the stamps of the 1st  and 2nd series...
2nd Series ) vertical design) floats in the wings of the aircraft.. Horizontal Design) small chapel in the left peak instead of the right peak in the first...
1923/1928 "Servicio de Transportes Aéreos en Colombia" (13) [Des (R. Klein)][Litho (Government Printing Works, Berlin)] Sc(C39,C41,C42,C45,C47,C48)

To end the post I have a complete series from 1959 .. the first stamp is for normal postage and the others are  Air Mail stamps...
1959 "Birth Centenary of R.M. Carrasquilha" (3) [Des (Imre Von Mosdossy)][Photo ((Enschedé)] Sc(696,C315,C316)


 I hope that you have found this post interesting ... for me , it is satisfying if you begin to see some movies in English with English Subtitles...

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The Queen, some Flowers and Several Conference's

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1. Finally I have a small post with Queen Elizabeth II Stamps...

This is the First QEII Definitive series... well , I must correct.. It look's like the the 1952 series.!!. One of the things these QEII Definitive Series taught us is that things aren't always what they seem to be.. there are three different issues of this beautiful series.. the design and perforation remain constant, but the watermark is different on each one of them..so, in fact the images above  present stamps from all of the 3 issues.; I'm not really an expert in QEII stamps , but it is possible that, in spite the fact of the design and printing mode [Photo] remains the same , could exist some differences in the general appearance of the stamps.. I don't know because I don't spend much time studying these particular stamps.. the 'MIX' series is not complete , because the 7d stamp is missing..

The first issue from 1952/1954 had 17 stamps and presents the left Wmk , with the Tudor Crown and 'E2R'(Elizabeth II Reign)

The second issue from 1955/1958 has also 17 stamps but the middle Wmk , with the St. Edwards Crown

The third issue from 1958/1965 ( 17 stamps ... also...) presents the right Wmk , only with Crowns...

these are the three main issues of this series , but in time they were issued similar stamps with phosphor bands (1959) and with black lines on the back of the stamps (1957/1959) ... this QEII series and the others that follows are good examples of the need of having special equipment to 'discover' the right Wmk presented , because in some of these stamps it is really difficult to spot the Wmk... perhaps in the future I can buy one of those machines that turns the Wmk detection from a nightmare into a beautiful and happy Reality.. 

Other thing that is needed is a specialized in QEII stamps catalog.. sometimes people think that this is only for extravagant collectors, but it isn't.. You will never know what you have in hands , unless You got one of these..!

 I will not present the Sc codes this time , because i think there is no need of it...

I will continue now with some British commemorative stamps, always good additions to a collection...

1953 "Coronation" (4) [Photo] Sc(313,314)

1958 "6th British Empire and Commonwealth Games , Cardiff" (3) [Photo] Sc(338,339)

1960 "1st Anniversary of the European Postal and Communications Congress" (2) [Photo] Sc(377,378)

1960 "Tercentenary of the Establishement of 'General Letter Office'" (2) [Photo] Sc(375)

1961 "CEPT Conference, Torquay" (3) [Photo] Sc(382,384)

1961 "7th Commonwealth Parlamentary Congress" (2) [Photo] Sc(385)

1963 "Freedom from Hunger" (2) [Photo] Sc(390,391)

1963 "Centenary of the First International Postal Conference, Paris" (1) [Photo] Sc(392)

1964 "10th International Botanical Congress" (4) [Photo] Sc(414,...,417)

Sorry for don't presenting the designer's data , but I only got (yet,..) British data until George VI Reign..

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Birds, Flowers, Some Usual Faces and a Crown

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Today I'm going to start with some recent stamps from Turkey..

these are stamps from the set 8 2004 "Birds" 

Perf: 13.5

SG(3580,3581,3583,3584) Sc(2891,2892,2894,2895)

from the set 5 2003 "Fruit blossoms" 

Perf: 13.5 x 14

SG(3540,3543)  Sc(2861,2864)

from the set 5 2001 "Medicinal Plants"

Perf: 13.25

SG(3470,3471)  Sc(2806,2807)

These are stamps not so recent..

1) set 5 1968 "30th Death Anniversary of Kemal Ataturk" Perf: 13 SG(2256) Sc(1789)

2) set 4 1968 "Kemal Ataturk (1968)" Perf:12.5 SG(2228)  Sc(1769)

3) set 7 1970 "Kemal Ataturk (1970)" Perf: 13

SG(2312)  Sc(1835)

4,5) set 15 1972 "Kemal Ataturk (1972/1976)" Perf: 13.5 x 13 SG(2431a,2434a)  Sc(1924,1930)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Atat%C3%BCrk

stamp from set 20 1943 representing President Inonu

Perf: 11

SG(1320)  Sc(906)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0smet_%C4%B0n%C3%B6n%C3%BC

Complete set 1988 "Cosmonautic Day"

Perf: 11.5 x 12

SG(5858)  SC(5653)

Complete set 1961 "91th Birth Anniversary of Lenin"

Perf: 12 x 12.5

SG(2579)  Sc(2466) 

set of 2 1962 "92th Birth Anniversary of Lenin" 

Perf: 12.5

SG(2679)  Sc(2582)

two stamps from the set 12 1976 "From Land to Space (once again I invented the name...)" ; the stamps represent Lenin and Marx .. I give the set this name because in the other stamps the focus is in the army and in farmers , then came Lenin and Marx and ends with a space stamp; 

Perf: 12.5 x 12

SG(4541,4543)  Sc(4525,4527)

Now some stamps of British Kings and Queens..

from a set 12 1887 "Queen Victoria 1887/1892)" ; the wmk in this stamp is so beautiful and visible that I took a picture with my mobile phone ( a cheap one..) and there it is .. A beautiful Imperial Crown...
Perf: 14
SG(201)  Sc(114)

Two stamps of King George V , one of Great Britain and the other of British India.

1) from a set 11 1934 "King George V (1934/1936)" Perf: 14 x 15  SG(441)  Sc(212)

2) from a set 19 1911 "King george V (1911/1923)" Perf: 14 [ I am not sure about this stamp..!!! ] SG(202)  Sc(81)

Both stamps are Wmk..

some stamps of King George VI

1) set 6 1950 "King George VI (1950/1951)" Sc(280)

2) set 6 1941 "King george VI (1941/1942) " Sc(258)

3) set 14 1937 "King george VI (1937/1939) " Sc(236)

4) set 6 1941 "King George VI (1941/1942) " Sc(259)

5) set 6 1950 "King George VI (1950/1951)" Sc(281)

6) set 14 1937 "King George VI (1937/1939)" Sc(237)

7) New Zealand  set 7 1938 "King George VI (1938/1944)" Sc(228c)

8) Singapore set 15 1948 "King George VI (1948)" Sc(11)

 Here it is a Booklet of Queen Elizabeth II stamps from 1975... My father brought this from a 2 week work voyage to london..It is not a common item here in Portugal, but i think in England must be a very easy one to find. I don't collect this kind of items..
It is just a curiosity...



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