Colors

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I want to start this post by Presenting my Best Wishes of Peace and Health to Next Year 2015...

I want to say that this will be a short post , according to the number of stamps, but an important one for me, because it will be about one of my major difficulties when dealing with stamps..since I've started this blog I've been saying that recognizing papers (by touch...) and Colors are my two main 'stone's in the shoe'...

when the time comes the issue 'colors' will be brought to the blog's arena...

today I have stamps from France and Hungary, two Countries always with stamps to enter the Collection..

France

 A beautiful stamp from a series of 1924 dedicated to the VIII Olympic Games , in Paris...it is a series of 4 stamps designed by Edmond Henry Becker, (1871/1971) Sculptor , engraver and known designer of coins ,notes and Jewels and engraved by C. Parison...

1924 "VIII Olympic Games, Paris" (4,4,4) [Des (Edmond Henry Becker)][Engr (C. Parison)][Typo] Sc(198)

When the originals of these stamps were for the first time issued , we were at the end of the WWI..the main subject of the Original series was the Orphans fund , and in one of the designs we can see a widow visiting her husband's Grave and in the other two children left alone by the 'Cruel' War.. these are somehow sad stamps that appeal to reflection and thinking.. I'm not an adept of mixing Politics and stamps, but I think that this is not Politics , this is all about the system in witch Politics lives and rule's us...This system is not always fair and one of it's pillars is one simple thing that allows few to take decisions that will affect thousands of Family's that will lost their relatives , friends, way of life , wealth , etc... It is without doubts one thing that we all should be prepared to change... There must be Always Referendum's before declaring War to another Country..if Country A is in War with Country B, and wins, did the poor widow's that lost their husbands , houses and sometimes children , win too??? I don't think so.. In War nobody wins..! War always was and always shall be the Ultimate failure of Man..

[1st stamp] 1926 "War Orphans Fund" (4) [Des (Louis-Joules Dumoulin 1860/1924)][Engr (L. Ruffe)][Typo] Sc(B20)

this is a stamp originally from 1917, with a different tax applied ..(in the original we have 2c+3c and here we have 2c+1c..)

[2nd and 3rd stamps] 1922 "War Orphans Fund" (8) [Des (Louis-Joules Dumoulin)][Engr (L. Ruffe)][Typo] Sc(B12,B13)

stamps of the Original series of 1917 surcharged...

I think it is time to start talking about colors, their variations and their use in Philately...in this case , 5 stamps of the same individual series are presented each one differing from the others , either by color or by a mix of color and Printing...I think we can say that the first one is the 'Blue' stamp..others are variations of Greenish blue.. the 2nd is a dull Greenish blue, the last one is a dark greenish blue, and the 3rd and 4th differ in the printing , specially in the man's body ( lightly darker in the 4th..).. the last presents us a darker horse (than the 2nd,3rd and 4th..).. the first is without doubts the best printing and probably the desired color.. even in France catalogs (Yvert) , only one color is presented as original, and no other variations are listed...in most cases there is no problem with the appearance of all this variations , but in the stamp we present next , we will see that great problems could emerge, because money is involved..!!

If , in my last post I put great emphasis in the correct identification of Wmk ( remember , we were talking about British stamps...) , now , with French Commemorative stamps the focus go in most cases to the color and it's variations...when we are working with Wmk , there are ways to know and see the mark itself, remaining in the end no doubts about the correct ID of the stamp...with colors, I know there is some kind of device that help us in the identification...I don't want to make publicity , but this was the first one I pick in the Net, and it is a SG item...(I don't own the right's of the image or the item, of course.. they are of SG..)

1st) are the color denominations standard for all countries??

2nd) what and where is the boundary from 1 color to another..??

3rd) who define's it??

I think these are all legitimate questions of someone who has a deep problem with color identification..

1929 " 500th Anniversary of the Relief of Orleans by the French Forces Led by Joan D'Arc" (1) [Des (Gabriel-Antoine Barlangue 1874/1955)][Engr (Abel Mignon)][Typo] Sc(245)

This is the tough subject of the post and the main reason I name it 'colors'.. ; in another post with French stamps I showed another one of these stamps, so these are new additions to the collection , acting as color variations... in this particular case , it is of absolute importance , because two of the variations are listed in the Yvert catalog, and one them has a particularly high cv... 

this is a stamp from a series from 1930 ('Plane flying over Marseilles')..the series has two stamps with the same value .. the first is a deep Carmine stamp and the 2nd a dark blue stamp with variations Ultramarine blue and Bright ultramarine blue...I have posted at the left  a small part of an old YT catalog of the 60's , where you can see this clearly... 

I think I have here '2 or 3 shades of blue', none of them Ultramarine blue.. they are variations of Dark blue.. currently , the prices for the ultramarine variations are € 25.00 cv for the ultramarine and € 460.00 cv (Yvert 2013 Used prices) for the Bright ultramarine..a small color variation could lead to a huge Financial difference.. the last stamp has some strange problems with the labels.. the color is not uniform in some of the labels, there are parts of the currency label, for example, that are not correctly printed .. the color is not uniform...

1930/1931 "AirPlane flying over Marseilles" (2) [Des (Albert Laurens)][Engr (Abel Mignon)][Recess] Sc(C6)

Hungary

 

These are stamps with a very familiar design in Hungarian Philately.. The Turul bird and the Crown of st. Stephen are represented in these stamps from the Flood Control Fund...

The stamps have a tax of 2f , presented in an additional Tax tab (if we consider that the superior part of the stamp is complete with center design , frames and exterior frames...)...however this tab , is not like others we know of other countries stamps , like Belgium , for example (in the Kings Leopold and Albert stamps...)... this tab cannot be separated from the stamp, and is part of the stamp itself while in the Belgium stamps it could be separated.. the series present us two designs , one we have talked about and the other ,of the higher values (k) , showing Emperor Francis Joseph wearing the Hungarian Crown...some stamps are printed with two colors , like the beautiful 12f and the 50f...All the stamps have a beautiful double Crown Wmk, clearly visible in most cases...
1913 "Flood Charity Stamps" (17) [Des (J.Bohm)(O. Tull / the k values)][Typo] Sc(B1,...,B7,B9,...,B13,B15)

These are War stamps from the War Widows and Orphans Fund (additional tax of 2f..).. the design is the same of the 1913 stamps , and in this period two overprinted series with this same design were issued with this tax...(1914 and 1915)
1915 "War Widows and Orphans Fund" (18) [Des (J. Bohm)][Typo] Sc(B35,B36,B38,B39,B40,B43)

these are really beautiful stamps work of two designers.. Jeno Haranguy (40f) (1894/1951) and J.Difcky (others)..One thing that I find strange is that these stamps do not belong to the list of very common stamps from Hungary and yet, they seem to be the stamps with lowest cv  of those who are shown in this post...there must exist a considerably lower demand for Hungarian stamps, to justify the market price they have... it is not understandable because there are very beautiful and well conceived stamps in the classic and Neo-classic period of Hungarian Philately , with lots of excellent works of great Artists...
1916 "War Charity stamps" (3) [Des (Jeno Haranguy/40f)(J. Difcky/others)][Typo] Sc(B53,...,B55)

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In the Theatre

New Entries

In my last post I have presented some stamps from the Classical period of Angola...it was a period of time when Angola, as we know, was under Portuguese influence. ; I have decided to present those stamps because I only had to work with overprints... I think that the classical period of Portugal is one of the most difficult to classify, not because of Watermarks, overprints, but because of the knowledge it requires of papers...You have to know everything about papers, and to know it by touch... it requires a great deal of experience... I think I'm not yet prepared for this task..... It reminds of an old TV show from the 70's , named "Kung Fu" , where in the first day of the young student in the Shaolin Temple , the old Master present him a small stone and say "When you could grab the pebble from my hand... then you must leave." ; and he did leave , but 20 years later... So , when You see me presenting  here stamps of King D. Luis , King D. Carlos I or the "Ceres" series , then you know I'm finally experienced in papers ..

Here We have two similar series from Hungary... These series have no name in these world catalogs I use( they should have one in the National Catalogs..)..The 1st series is from 1939 and has 14 stamps...it is  divided into smaller values (from 1 to 25f) [with perf. 15] and the higher values (30 to 70f) [with perf. 12].. The watermarks presented are different from the 1st. to the 2nd series
The 2nd is a series of 19 1941/1943. It could have perf. 12x 12.5, 12.5 x 12 or 15 ; in these particular stamps, we have:
1st) Perf: 12
Sc(546,547,548,549,550) 
2nd) Perf: 12 x 12.5
Sc(588,590,595)

a few stamps of Venezuela , from the set 12 1966 "Bolivar commemoration" ; these are AIR stamps , [and Venezuela Philately is rich in these stamps] .

Perf: 14 x 13.5

SG(1970,1971,1974,1975,1980) Sc(C937,C938,C941,C942,C947)

When my father left me his Portugal and Ex-Colonies stamps, I begin to think "how can I make this collection grow??".. I think in exchanging stamps , but at that time I didn't know anyone who collected stamps... than I start buying them..First, complete series , and finally , big lots of world stamps, complete albums of particular countries, etc. but I tried several times to exchange stamps , but in the end I was robbed 2 or 3 times ( even in recent days..).. I will not exchange stamps again, because the final result is to lost faith in the man kind... it is not good..

This is a complete set of Israel 1971 " Israeli Theatre".. This is from one of the lots I have bought 2 or 3 years ago [ 1966 to 1970 MNH ] ( I have to make several post's yet with Israel stamps..) 

Perf: 14 x 13

SG(469,468,470) Sc(440,441,442)

Complete set 1970 "50th Anniv of Habimah National Theatre"

Perf: 14 x 13

SG(443) Sc(412)

stamps from a set 5 1975 "Pyongyang Zoo"

Perf: 1st) 12.5 2nd) 10.5

SG(1352,1353) Sc(1290,1291)

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UPU

New Entries

There are Countries difficult to collect... Hungary is not one of them !!.. The abundance of resources of all the ages of Hungarian Philately, is notorious.. When I first began to be an active collector (that is to say, a buyer..!!), great and cheap lots were my main goal... In the group of those that were always available , Hungarian stamps were on the "lead".. Personally , the target I choose after 2 or 3 years were the 30's, 40's and 50's.. not only with Hungarian stamps, but with all countries.. perhaps this decision was influenced by my idea that those were interesting days to live...

So I can say that if there is anything never lacking at my home , Hungarian stamps to classify are for certain one of them..; this abundance , however don't reflect the quality and the variety of these stamps.. not always the most common is the worst...! It is indeed a great Philately and offers to the collector every kind of challenges and opportunities... issues with different kinds of paper and watermarks, great variety of overprints, surcharges, etc,  topics of all kinds , beautiful designs , etc...

stamps from a set 6 1938 "400th Anniv of Debrecen College" 

Perf: 12 x 12.5

SG(624,626,627) Sc(531,533,534) wmk

 These two stamps are from the same series, different issues, one original, the other Surcharged.

[Left stamp] from the set 4 1944 "50th Death Anniv of Kossuth (statesman)"

Perf: 12 x 12.5

SG(776) Sc(621) wmk

[Right stamp] from the set 4 1945 "Surcharge on '50th Death Anniv of Kossuth (statesman)'" ; this stamp has a surcharge of (24p+8p); there is a particularity in this set.. the paper is Yellow or Blue

Perf: 12

Sc(B177) wmk

The U.P.U or Universal Postal Union is theme for numerous series of all countries...It had great importance in the implementation and constant actualization of rules that make postal circulation possible..
from a set 3 1949 "75th Anniversary of U.P.U."
Perf: 12 x 12.5
SG(1071) Sc(C63) AIR wmk 

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

Costumes are a theme for at least one series for each country... European countries have done so , over the 40's , 50's and 60's and Hungary was not an exception. 
These series became marks in each country Philately.. 
These are stamps from the set 8 1953 "Provincial Costumes" , beautifully engraved and watermarked..( I must say that for me the back of these stamps is almost as beautiful as the front..(!!))
Perf: 12
SG(1323,1324,1325,1326,1327) Sc(1062,1063,1064,1065,1066) wmk

 from the set 2 1951 "Hungarian-Soviet Amity"
Perf: 12.5 x 12
SG(1161) Sc(933) wmk

Set 5 1950 "1st Congress of Young Workers, Budapest."
Perf: 12.5 x 12
SG(1122) Sc(904) Wmk

Complete set 1968 " Kando Commemoration"..
It celebrates the life of Kalman Kando (Engineer) and his contribution to the development of the Kando Locomotive.
Perf: 11.5 x 12
SG(2335) Sc(1879)

these stamps don't appear but they are AIR MAIL stamps from the set 10 1954 "Air. Insects"
Perf: 12 x 12.5
SG(1345,1346,1347) Sc(C137,C138,C139) wmk

from the set 10 1936 "AIR" 
Perf: 12 x 12.5
SG(582) Sc(C37) wmk





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The Regent, The Plan and the Zoo

New Entries

Complete set 1911 "25th Anniv of Regency of Prince Luitpold"; the slight red coloration of the 5pf stamp frame is due to a external agent... 

Perf: 11.5

SG(92,93) Sc(154,155)

stamp from a set 21 1920 "Various motifs" ; it is a Overprinted ( with "Deutches Reich") set of the precedent 1920 issues..

The wmk is shown in the picture (Horizontal wavy lines)

Perf: 11.5

Sc(274)

stamps from a set 5 1950 "President Wilhelm Pieck (1950/1951)".. both stamps are wmk but of very difficult visibility..

Perf: 12.5 x 13

Sc(54,55)

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

.

These are stamps from the set "Five Year Plan" , that was redrawn 4 times between 1953 and 1960... here  is the reason of this "sometimes" difficult classification...

the 2 pictures below , show us a difference between the original issue of 1953 and the rest of them.. if Your stamps are designed in lines , they are not from the original 1953 issue (designed in dots) ; additional differences between the 3 "lined" issues can be found , and the most important are the perforation and the designer and engraver signatures...at last we may have to see what is the wmk( in most cases it is not clearly visible...) 

                                                                   

   1953] 7 1953/1954]4,9,12 1957,1958]3,5,6,8 1959/1960]1,2,10,11

Perf: 13 x 12.5 (1953) 13 x 12.5 (1953/1954) 13 x 12.5 , 14 (1957/1958) 13 x 12.5 , 14 (1959/1960)

Signed: 1953 (NO) 1953/1954 (YES) 1957/1958 (YES) 1959/1960 (NO)

two stamps from the set 22 "Transport and Communications (1963/1964)".. the 1st stamp is damaged , but for the moment it is the only one of this I've got, so it must stay..!

Perf: 11.5 x 12

SG(1912,1917) Sc(1520,1525)

Complete set 1979 "Central Zoo, Pyongyang" ;

Perf: 12

SG(1901,..,1906) Sc(1864,..,1869)

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The Parliament, The Grand Master and the Mystery Freeze

New Entries

Here are 6 stamps of the set 14 1920 "Parliament Building,Budapest (1920/1924)" ; there are several issues of similar stamps since 1916 , differing by the top label, the perforation and the Wmk. In this case we have this Wmk representing a double Cross and the top Label is "Magyar Kir Posta"..The 100k value presents a "punched" mark with the shape of a triangle in the center of the stamp; this mark only was seen during the period 1921/1924...
Perf: 14
SG(404,409,411,413,416,417)  Sc(364,369,371,373,376,377)

Complete set 1983 "50th Death Anniv of Monsignor Giuseppe de Piro"
Perf: 14
SG(718)

stamp from the set 4 1997 "Pioneers of Education" representing Dr. albert Laferla
Perf: 14
SG(1054)

stamp from the set 4 1998 "Bicentenary of Napoleon's Capture of Malta" ; represents the Grand Master Ferdinand Von Hompesch
Perf: 14
SG(1071)

from the 3 set 2001 "Visit of Pope John Paul II" and represents 3 Religious Personalities who were candidates to Beatification ..

.2 stamps from the set 4 1955 "Fish Freezing Plant 1955/1956"
beautiful stamps..
Perf: 13
SG(399,401) Sc(346,348)

2 AIR MAIL stamps from France representing two different models of the plane Mystere [Mystere 4 and Mystere 20]..
The 1st is from a set 4 stamps 1954 and the second is a Complete set from 1965.
Perf: 13
Sc( C29,C41)


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