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Today and after almost a week trying to reduce internet to it's minimum presence in my life, I have some stamps from the Balkans... Bosnia Herzegovina, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria are represented with some stamps from early days...let us start ,without more delays by Bosnia Herzegovina...

Bosnia Herzegovina

I will not enter in any geographical or Political considerations, because they all are easily available in wikipedia or other internet source...

These are stamps from the first series of Bosnia.... if you look to them carefully you will see that they are in very , very bad conditions, ...this same design was issued from 1879 to 1900,with several different issues...

the stamp above show us the hot spots of this design, and variations of the shown spots are divided in 3 different types:

closer scans of A,B and C, allow us to do the following division:

Type 1] the eye of the lion is a single spot or is missing in the printing process (A) and the 3 heraldic figures in the shield are clear and white (B) ... 

Type 2] the eye of the lion is a colored spot  and the first star (down/up) has a colored line across...

type 3] A) and B) are identical to Type 1) but  the extreme portion of the Eagle's tail do not touch the inner exterior frame [ in (C) we can easily say that the tail touches the frame...)]

after these considerations I can say that all the 5 stamps are Type 1....

Type 1 stamps are litho] printed while type 2 and 3 are Typo].. There are several different possible perforations or combinations in these different issues from 1879 to 1900...in 1900 another design (new plates and new currency)  was issued and the distinction between these two different designs is easy to do... until 1900, the design show us the fv (face value of the stamp) in the right and left upper corners, while from 1900 on the design show the fv in the foot right and left corners... the design itself is identical...

I have to say SG present us a much more detailed  information about these stamps (but I am not working with a Scott specialized catalog..) ...

I will not talk about the D) 'hot spot',because i don't think it is useful this time ... 

1879/1898 "Coat of Arms" (9) [Litho] Sc(4,5,6,7,8a)

Talking about pictorial or Commemorative stamps from Austria or Bosnia in this time frame, is talking of the Painter and Graphic Artist  Koloman Moser and his joint works with the engraver Ferdinand Schirnbock...in fact through time there were several pairs of Artists that with their joint work created some of the best  Art our Hobby as to offer...this is one of the most famous among them... there are many curious things about these stamps,but I want to highlight the presence of different vignettes and frames for each one of the values...[there are many possible perforations...]

1906 "Landscapes & Famous Places of Bosnia Herzegovina" (16) [Des (Koloman Moser)][Engr (Ferdinand Schirnbock)][Recess] Sc(30,31,33,35,36,37,38,41)

Yugoslavia

these are stamps issued for Slovenia and the series is called "Breaking the chains"...the design is work of  Ivan Vavpotic ... the first thing we have to know is that 3 different issues exists, one [Litho] printed and two other [Typo] printed...there are differences in the design in one case or the other, so it is better if  we know them : 

A) for 3v,5v and 15v we have to see if the left chain touches the inferior frame.. if not , the stamp is [Litho] printed.

B) 10v  for this value the difference is in the size of the fv...if it is larger, we have a [Litho] printed stamp...

C) 20v in this value the difference is in the mountains that appear between the men's legs...(if the mountains are well defined, with well defined borders, we have a [litho] printed stamp...

I will not talk of the other values and I want to make very clear that I will not present a classification until I have more stamps of each value to know and could document here in the blog the correct differences between the stamps...

to end this very "superficial" approach to this series I need to say that there are two ]Typo] printed issues, one from Ljubljana and the other from Vienna...

now , we have a stamp representing King Peter I.. if you click in the first picture , You will notice that the paper background have some strange lines , red in the two first stamps and grey in the last...the stamp that stands alone doesn't have this lined background (because only the stamps from 2d to 10d present it..) ...this series has 14 stamps,and the first 10 stamps are [Litho] printed and the others [Typo] printed...the 3 stamp presented together in the picture are bigger than the other 11 stamps...

1920 "King Peter ,Chain Breaker and Freedom" (14) [Des (Ivan Vavpotic)][Litho (5p to 1d)][Typo (2d to 10d)] Sc(3L52,3L54,3L55,3L51)

BULGARIA

1902 "25th Anniversary of the Battle of Shipka Pass" (3) [Litho] Sc(70)

These are stamps from a beautiful [Recess] printed series...the Engraver was from Bradbury Wilkinson and the Printing from the GPW in Rome...some pictures from famous Bulgaria places and a number of representations of Tsar Ferdinand wearing different Military Uniforms and Royal robes are part of this series...The designs are work of two different Artists, A. Mitov and G. Estavien...it is something we should take notice, the fact that in these period of time Bulgarian Designers usually leave their signature in the work they have finished... so if we look carefully,small marks are left behind to identify each Artist...in this series some of those small marks are already visible...(in other countries,this was also a current activity, and the name of the Artists is represented below the inferior frame or using these marks, sometimes well hidden in the design [Vignette] itself.)..the series has 12 stamps and different designs and frames for each one of the values... I want to highlight the beautiful 25st Ultramarine blue , the great, great engraving work , and taking this stamp as an example the small mark  at the bottom of the vignette (in this case any of the initials of the designers are represented , so it could be the Engraver's mark ... just a supposition..! it appears in many of the other stamps of this series..) .

1911 "Various Landscapes and Portraits" (12) [Engr (Bradbury Wilkinson & Co.)][Recess (Government Printing Works, Rome)] Sc(89,90,91,92,93,95)

These are stamps from a 1917 series about the Liberation of Macedonia...at our right we have a more detailed scan of one of the stamps showing Badzhov's Mark... Stefan Badzhov was the designer and this small mark appear in all of the stamps of this series... 

1917/19  "Liberation of Macedonia" (10) [Des (Stefan Badzhov)][Typo (Vienna)] Sc(123,124,125)

Search for Badzhov's mark,please...

1918 "30th Anniversary of Tsar Ferdinand's Accession" (4) [Des (Stefan Badzhov)][Typo (Vienna)] Sc(130,131)

now we have finished the reign of Tsar Ferdinand and we are entering the reign of Tsar Boris III...first, we should notice that the two portraits of King Boris III presented in the picture above are just a color variation of the same stamp (grey and green)...in this same series another identical portrait is presented but if we look carefully (of course , I don't present it, so we can not look carefully...!) we notice a difference between these two designs... in the one's above , the right shoulder of the King (presented at our left) doesn't touch the left  frame and in the absent stamp it touches that frame...another aspect that call my attention is the beautiful frame with many traces of the 20's ...what I like the most in the 4l stamp is the pale yellow sky , that makes a beautiful contrast with the red of the design...

1924/1926 "Various Designs and Portraits" (7) [Typo] Sc(199,199a,197)

King Boris III stamps from 3 different series and time frames...a curious coincidence is that we have here examples of 3 different Printing Processes.. [Typo],[Recess]and [Photo] printings,respectively..something I had noticed in the past, with my late scanner, is that some browns or violet reds appear lined in the scan and there is nothing I can do to fix this ... one more time this has occurred in the [Photo] stamp... sorry..

 [Left] 1919/1921 "1st Anniversary of the Enthronement of King Boris III" (7) [Typo] Sc(143)

[Right] 1921/1923 "King Boris III and other Designs" (7) [Engr[Recess (Bradbury wilkinson)]] Sc(165)

[Center] 1938 "20th Anniversary of King Boris Accession" (5) [Des (K. Penev)][Photo] Sc(343)

To end the post , I have a beautiful series from 1942 where just one stamp is missing (one of the lower fv  15st) ... the series is designed by Emma­nuil Rak­ar­ov and what troubles me is that I think these are original paintings just for this series...if they were paintings from other Artist or from other period of time, the technical data of the series would tell us 'from paintings by...'..well ,this doesn't happen so we are facing a great , great Artist, with beautiful classical paintings, traveling through out Bulgaria's History...Oh!..Oh..if these stamps were engraved (....!)  , this would be a much more appealing and renowned series...the [Photo] printing and the lack of detail associated doesn't pay tribute to the Artist Work...it s a shame and a pity..!! 

I think the quality of the paintings deserve that I share also the meaning of each one of them : 1st) Legend of Kubrat 2nd)Equestrian Statue 3rd) Baptism of King Boris I 4th) St. Naum's School 5th) Coronation of Tsar Simeon 6th) Golden Era of Bulgarian Literature 7th) Trial of Bogomil Vasili 8th) Proclamation of the Second Bulgarian Empire 9th) Ivan Asen II at Trebizond 10th) Expulsion of Patriarch Eftimi 11th) Wandering Minstrels 12th) Father Paisi 13th) Shipka Pass Memorial

1942 "Historical Series" (14) [Des (Emma­nuil Rak­ar­ov)][Photo] Sc(420,422,....,433)

I hope this post could help You in any way to better know and understand the stamp from these 3 countries... it is somehow a superficial post, without any detailed "dig" in one or more of the series presented... well , I think next week a Great  Post will come about  one of my Favorite Stamp designers...

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UFO?

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Today I will focus on some series from very different origins and Time Frames. Let us start with stamps from Yugoslavia..

During the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovens , some series from King's Peter and Alexander are part of the main 'dish' ...from 1921 to 1927 we have 3 [Recess] printed series and one [Typo] printed series.. the 1921 series show us two designs from King Peter and his son Prince Alexander.. From 1922 to 1927 , there are 3 other series of King Alexander...I have here to present some stamps of the 1921, 1924 and 1926/27 series...

  
Here , Alexander is shown yet as a young Prince in the last years of his father's reign...together with this design , another one presenting the king was issued..It is curious to see that with time and when we have more than one stamp of each value , we tend to study the stamps and try to find weak spots on the stamp, or points where possible errors, variables and other philatelic mistakes could occur.. in this stamp I was expecting to see differences in the Uniform of the Prince, but I found nothing.. 
The only stamp that is new to the collection is the 2p and finishes the Prince Alexander design (the others are spares and the 1d of the 1923 series) while one stamp of King Peter is still missing..
Yugoslavia 1921 "King Peter and Prince Alexander" (14) [Recess (ABNC)] Sc(6,7,7,2)
Yugoslavia 1923 "King Alexander" (5) [Recess (ABNC)] Sc(22)

some spare stamps for this series...

1924 "King Alexander I" (10) [Recess (De La Rue)] Sc(31)

This is the [Typo] series I was talking about.. As I mentioned in other post, my scans of [Photo][Litho] and [Typo] stamps are taken with an inferior resolution (300ppp), while in the [Recess] stamps I use in this post [600ppp)...in each stamp of these mono-colored stamps, there are several shades of the defined color , so we must know where to find our 'Catalog' color....in this case I think the color is the one of the Frames background...i present here 9 of the 12 stamps from this series ...
Other important thing to highlight after seeing these stamps from these 3 series is that a well centered stamp must have some kind of increase in it's value...We must also see that in the 1921 series the label immediately below the Oval Center is 'Kraljevstvo' while in the other series the label is 'Kraljevina'...
Yugoslavia 1926/1927 "King Alexander" (12) [Des/Engr (D. Wagner)][Typo] Sc(41,...,47,49,50)

 Now I will start with a series from Finland.. this is a rather difficult series to classify, mainly because of the time frames involved.. the series was first issued in 1930 and the last stamp was from 1952.. in 1954 this 'Lion' Series was replaced by other one...I decided to show the stamps by Year of issue... at the beginning of the classification and after a first look to the design I was expecting to find some troubles with the stars (I call them stars, but they could also be flowers or whatever you want to call them...) and with the sword (I was expecting that in some of the stamps the space between the end of the sword and the star would be nonexistent...).. but once again I was wrong ... all the action was in other place..! (We will  talk latter..).. let us start the Chronological display of the stamps...

Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1930)" (12) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)][Typo] Sc(158,159,162,163,165,166,169,171,175)

Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1932)" (5) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)][Typo] Sc(164,168,170,172,174)

[Left] Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1936)" (2) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)][Typo] Sc(173,176)
[Right] Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1940)" (3) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)] [Typo] Sc(170A,170B,174B)

Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1942)" (5) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)] [Typo] Sc(166B,173B,174A,176A,176C)

Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1945)" (8) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)] [Typo] Sc(173C,175B,175C,176B,176D,176E,176G,176I)

Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1946)" (2) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)] [Typo] Sc(?,?)

Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1947)" (6) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)] [Typo] Sc(257,258,260,261,262)



Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1948)" (5) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)] [Typo] Sc(270,273)

[Right] Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1950)" (6) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)] [Typo] Sc(294,296)
[Left] Finland "Lion , Stars and Swords (1952)" (3) [Des (S. Hammarsten Jansson)] [Typo] Sc(304)

Well, in these series and after some math , there are 57 stamps.. I only present here 44 of them...let us see now where all the action is... if we look to the design it seems always identical, but there is one place where great variations exists...immediately below the top right star there is the lions tail... I will show some of the differences in the design ...this doesn't mean a thing , because they are only 'printing' problems I think , but as You will see , there are differences...these differences are random, occur in different year issues, and they don't appear in every stamps of the same value... 

Now I will going to initiate the presentation of some stamps from a South African series from 1982 ...it is also a Definitive series (know as the 4th..) spread through some years...it has the particularity of join three of the main printing modes in just one series ([Recess], [Litho] and [Photo])...it show us some great buildings from South Africa and Commonwealth .. the Designs are work of A.H. Barret and they are really good... The series has also two main stamp formats , one for the values until 20c and other (larger) for the high values...The [Recess] and [Litho] printing modes occur in both , high and low values , and some values are even repeated with a different printing .. the [Photo] mode only appears in the 4 coil stamps issued in this series...

South Africa 1982/1987 "4th Definitive Series" (37) [Des (A.H. Barret)][Recess][Litho] Sc(564,569,594,572,573,574,578,579,580,581,582,584,586,598,599)

The reason why a Sc code 594 appear above in the middle of the 560's and 570's is connected with the way Sc catalog organized the stamps.. In my opinion it is the right way , because it separates the [Litho] stamps from the [Recess] stamps...As you can see in the stamps above , the 3rd stamp is engraved so it  appear with a higher code...

Is it a Man? Is it a Plane ? is it a UFO? No , it is a 'Philatelic Mistake'(something that is where it should not be...)I appreciate that someone with real knowledge of South African stamps, could tell me something about this.... it doesn't appear cataloged as a variety or other Strange thing in my 1996 South African Catalog...I only have this stamp, so I cannot conclude anything.. it is probably nothing of important as usual...

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