Quality time

New Entries

Several of my last posts were about large or even huge Series of definitive stamps..there is always something to tell about those stamps, that in a first view are all equal , with identical printings, same designer and engraver, etc.. but in the end there are,  since the beginning of our hobby ,people who devote their time to these series, searching and digging , always waiting for a new detail or a new and fresh perspective ...We must be very grateful to all of these people , anonymous in their major part , for the advancements in the hobby and in the construction of the history of Postage stamps and development of printing and other 'lateral' techniques ... Now , computers will not let all this knowledge be forgotten, and in some years time , with just a click we will know everything we want about the various disciplines of our hobby... there is still many to be done!!! many old stamp magazines and literature to be digitized ,  the work of many important people who remain still unknown , etc... All this work should already be done  , and done by the Major Post office's who have all the data involved... but no, the collector must do it , and sometimes in the hard way.. 

To collect stamps is to have some moments for your own , thinking just in stamps and working with them , whatever that could mean..When a collector is working with it's stamps, it is in peace, relaxed, letting all the other influences for moments , in the other side of the door.. there are no money problems, no wars, no... just for moments , of course..! I think that it is because of this relaxing and individual time that all of us start to collect.. it is quality time!!!

The other day i presented some Chinese Commemorative's , and now i have some beautiful stamps, also commemorative's from France 20 's, 30's and 40's.. Let's start..

Well, here is another finished series.. this one is from 1924 and it is about the Olympic Games.. the first stamp was already presented in the blog , and there are two of the  25c because the Background red is definitely different...( so , there are color variations..).. I want to apologize , because today some of the stamps have problems with the perforations (one day i will replace them..)

1924 "VIII Olympique Games" (4) [Des (E. Becker)][Engr (G. Daussy)][Typo] Sc(199,199 200,201)

The 25c and the 1st 75c are replacements for others, but the series it is not finished yet ..I must say that I don't like particularly these stamps, they don't have the 'Master touch' of many other stamps in French Philately...

1924/1925 "International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts" (6) [Des (L. Ruet 15c, 2nd 75c)(E. Becker 25c, 1st 75c)][Engr (H. Rapin 15c, 2nd 75c)(Abel mignon 25c, 1st 75c)][Typo] Sc(221,222,224,225)

This is a stamp commemorating the St. Michel Mountain, one of the most know places in France ..  there are two types: type I [Left] , more valuable, with some details of the uppermost part of the tower, somehow faded, with divisions in the brown lines limiting the tower... the single line that tops the tower is also divided ( it is difficult to see in this image , because of the Postmark...) Type II [Right] presents us very well defined brown lines , limiting the tower and the top line is not divided, and this is clearly seen in the image... from the appreciation of those three stamps above We can conclude that stamps with greater presence of the background white in the design of the mountain, are those of type I, that is to say , those stamps with a lighter brown in the mountain... stamps with a dark brown mountain should be type II...

1930 "Sites Et monuments / St. Michel Tower" (1) [Des (Fernand Bivel)][Engr (Abel Mignon)][Intaglio] Sc(249,250) [type I (left stamp)][Type II (others)]

One more finished series.. 

1934 "4th Cent of the Arrival of Jacques Cartier to Canadá" (2) [Des (Achille Ouvré)][Engr (Achille Ouvré)][Intaglio] Sc(297)

I had this stamp in the collection.. these are green variations...

1935 "Sites Et monuments / Brittany River" (1) [Des (Laboreour)][(Antonin Delzers)][Intaglio] Sc(299)

another color Variation.. Unfortunately , not the Greenish blue! this was the first stamp designed by Albert Decaris, one of the Masters...

1935 "First voyage of the liner Normandie" (1) [Des (Albert Decaris)][Engr (Albert Decaris)][Intaglio] Sc(300)

One more stamp of the fabulous French series "Sites Et Monuments".. it is a series spread through a large time frame (I don't know if it continues or not in our days...) with magnificent designs and beautiful engravings , as usual in French stamps.. this time a monument is the focus of the stamp...
1935 "Sites Et monuments / Saint Trophime D'Arles" (1) [Des (Albert Decaris)][Engr (Albert Decaris)][Intaglio]  Sc(302)

1935 "Opening of the International Bank Savings Congress" (1) [Des (R. Gregoire)][Engr (Antonin Delzers)][Intaglio] Sc(301)

This stamp commemorates the life and achievements of Andre-Marie Ampere, known to us in the field of electricity...
1936 "Death Centenary of André-Marie Ampere" (1) [Des/Engr (Antonin Delzers)][Intaglio] Sc(306

This is a beautiful Ultramarine blue stamp, representing the windmill that was immortalized in the book of Alphonse Daudet , published in 1866, "Letters from my Windmill" ... this is another of those stamps with possible 'bonus'.. Yvert 2013 tell us that if the sky background is white , the value of the stamp increases considerably.. the problem is 'what we should consider as white' (?) if we see the pictures below the stamps , we will find small lines that could be more or less colored... in the first stamp, with a 400ppp scan we can only see some darker shades at the right side of the sky...the lines to the middle and left are almost invisible to us...in a 720 scan, we can see that in those places , there are still many small lines but very faded.. of course none of these stamps , could be listed as one of those with white Sky, but I show them for You  to see all the work necessary to imagine and build something that in the end has almost no value at all...it is necessary to the designer to know what are the capacities and limitations of the engraver, always thinking in a good product when it will arrive at the printing... this is one of the reasons why some of the best stamps are production of just one men , designer and at the same time engraver or as a  result of joint efforts of the same two men (designer and engraver..)  during many works and many time... To 'give life' to a Good stamp was ,without doubts, complex...

1936 "Daudet's windmill" (1) [Des/Engr (Jules Piel)][Intaglio] Sc(307)

another series that ended...
1936 "22nd Anniversary of the Death of Jean Jaurés (Politician)" (2) [Des (Gregoire)][Engr (Jules Piel)][Intaglio] Sc(313)

An air Mail stamp commemorating the crossing of the South Atlantic by Airplane..
1936 "100th Airmail flight Across the South Atlantic" (2) [Des (G. Barlangue)][Engr (Pierre Munier)][Intaglio] Sc(C16)

This is a very nice design from Antonin  Delzers.. it celebrates Peace, everyone is enjoying the moment , laughing and crying of happiness...  but Peace is like the Rain, we only truly enjoy it , after a long drought...
1936 "Peace" (1) [Des/Engr  (Antonin Delzers)][Intaglio] Sc(321)

 A Sport stamp , about the Ski Championship in Chamonix..
1937 "International ski Championships, Chamonix" (1) [Des/Engr  (Georges-Leo Degorce)][Intaglio] Sc(322)

There are two versions of this Descartes stamp... in one of them, the book's title is "Discours sur La Methode" and in the other, the correct one, "Discours De La Methode"...
1937 "Tricentenary of the 'Discours De La Methode'" (1) [Des/Engr (Henry Cheffer)][Intaglio] Sc(330)

Commemorates the life of the Writer Anatole France
1937 "For the Intellectuals" (2) [Des/Engr (Antonin Delzers)] Sc(B49)

Very beautiful stamp, with a girl dressed with the local costumes of the Champagne region...This stamp commemorates the life of one of the main innovators in the production of  Champagne.. I'm talking , of course of the Famous Dom Pierre Perignon 
1938 "Tercentenary of the Birth of Dom Pierre Perignon" (1) [Des (André-Spitz)][Engr (Antonin Delzers)][Intaglio] Sc(350)

1940/1941 "Marshall Petain" (4) [Des/Engr (Jules Piel)][Intaglio] Sc(415,...,418)

stamp representing the D-Day , marking the beginning of the Decline of Hitler's dream.
1954 "10th anniversary of the Liberation" (1) [Des/Engr (Raoul Serres)][Intaglio] Sc(718)

1958 "40th Anniversary of WWI Armistice" (1) [Des/Engr (Pierre Gandon)][Intaglio] Sc(895)

With this magnificent work of Pierre Gandon , I will end this long post, hopping that it contributes to a renewed will to collect stamps, 'Where Ever You Are and No Matter What Stamps'....

SeeYou

Roty's Stamp

New Entries

Some time ago I bought a very large lot of Romania stamps.. I have shown some of them , there are many more, but today I will focus on a relatively complete group of France stamps that come with that lot..

it is a group of stamps of a famous French Series , La Semeuse de Roty, with several stamps of each value... 

As We know , this series was continually issued, with new values and colors , over many years.. it is divided into 2 main designs, both representing 'La Semeuse' , but the first with the Sun and a lined background, and the 2nd without the Sun and with a solid colored background... In this post I will only present stamps from this 1st series ,that I will call "La Semeuse with Sun and Lined Background" To start , here is an example of this stamp...

We can see clearly the sun with it's rays, some of them  appearing in the front side of 'La Semeuse'...We can see also, our lined background... all of the stamps I will show have these two basic properties, but , as We will see, could differ in other characteristics.. All these stamps are new entries to the collection , but I already have one exemplar of some values, clearly insufficient due to color variations and known varieties of some stamps... this series was designed by Louis -Oscar Roty and Engraved by Eugene Mouchon..

In 1903 the first values have been issued.. unfortunately I don't have any stamp from the 30c value, that should be less common than the others (easely seen by it's cv...)...so We have to count also with this value..

10C [Sc 138]

The 10c value is one of those tricky stamps, with 3 main types , and this diversity, together with the time required ,difficult's the classification and invites to some calm and relaxed observation of each stamp...sometimes the presence of  postmarks could be a major "step back" in the classification, resulting in stamps of undefined type...

[Left] (Type 1 and 2 ) The inferior base of the white numeral 1 goes leftward and upward... 

[Right] (Type 3 ) The inferior base of the white numeral 1 goes rightward and upward.. ( it is a little difficult to see in the image...it's the best I can arrange..) 

[Left] (Type 1and 2) the inferior shaded contour of the letter C only exists in the Center down-most part of the letter , letting the lined background contact the white ending part of the C (hard task to get words for this..!)  
[Right] (Type 3 )the shaded contour of  letter C goes from the end to the Center down-most part of the letter, so the lined background touches the shadow 
and not the white letter itself.. 

[Left] (Type 2) the line below the right leg of the R it is unoccupied 

[Right] (Type 1 and 3) The line below the right leg of the R is occupied by a small 'shadow'...

In this post I am using Scott World Catalog and Yvert & Tellier 2014.. The YT is of course much more detailed , with some of the main varieties for each value... I have here , the Rose type I, the Rose Type II, and the Deep Rose type III

15c [Sc 139]

The 15c is also very complicated and demands caution and observation...several of the varieties are connected to the Designer and engraver labels , one of them regarding the letter R of 'Republique' is identic to the 10c stamp and the others are the robe varieties...

[Up][Left] Type III,IV,V,VI (in the example stamp shown above, there is a large white arrow , pointing to a region in the back of the robe of "La Semeuse".. that region is presented in a more detailed way in the 2 pictures above.. You can see that there are two main white lines in the shaded region in solid green...in this picture the upper line is undivided...
[Up][Right] Type I,II (in this picture the upper line is divided in two segments..)
[Down][Left] Type III (here we have the name of the engraver, Eugene Mouchon.. if you watch carefully, You will see a small dot in the inferior right leg of the H)
[Down][Right] type I,II,III,IV (here we have the same that in the 10c stamp...the space below the R Right Leg is occupied by a small green shaded square...)( I f that space is unoccupied, then we have Type V,VI) 
( Now if We look again to the Engraver name , and if we find a printing defect that makes the M right leg shorter and a small hole in the left of the O, then We have Type II )
(To end this list of possible differences between these stamps, we have the Designers name 'O. Roty'... if you see a strange O, somehow elongated downward's , we have type V)  I don't present pictures of these last differences , because among the 15c stamps above , none of them is type II,V or VI... I have some olive shades type IV, one type III and two type I stamps.. some others type 4 in Grey Green and one of them unidentified , due to the presence of  a postmark that keeps me from seeing some important parts of the stamp...

Here is the only stamp of 20c  I have this time and some of them of 25c.. there are no hidden secrets in these stamps, only color shades varieties.. in the 25c I have the normal blue and the Deep blue variety...As I said before , we have to remember the 30c stamp that is missing, and so we reach the end of the first  group of 5 stamps, issued in 1903...

This new group of values , starts with the 45c , but the first to be issued was the 50c blue in 1921...The 45 c has two varieties of color, but no tricky material...let us talk a little about the 50c..

50c Sc(144,145,146)

This example image show us that all the action take place at the superior part of the stamp , in the Label "Republique Française"... there are 4 varieties depending on differences in this label...

1) type 1] before the description of this variety , I can say that there is a word that fully explains it : EQUALITY... A)the space inside the 1st R is equal to the 2nd B) the superior space of the letter B is identical to the inferior.. C) the spaces in the letter A are identical and normal spaces...

2) type 2] the Word now is DIFFERENCE...A)the space of the 1st R is larger than that of the 2nd..B) the superior space of the B is shorter than the inferior one.. C) the spaces in the A's are tiny...D) the space below the right leg of the 1st R is not shaded...

3) type 3] Equal to type 2, except (D) the space below the right leg of the 1st R is shaded..

4) type 4] A) 1st R not shaded... B) the space immediately before the word 'Republic' is not lined.. 

These are the values higher than 50c.. only the 75c has two varieties...

75c Sc(151)

this is much more simple than the others to explain by words... Type 1] above the C there is only one horizontal line (of the lined background) until we reach the first piece of robe above... type 2] there are two lines between the C and the robe..

I have also some surcharged stamps of this series , but I decided not to show them in this post...One last thing I must remind You.. If you have well centered stamps from any period of these series , keep them , because they , depending on the period, value many more than a normal or badly centered stamp...... 

I hope that this post will take you to get as many stamps as possible from this series into your collection , because there are many varieties, different colors, etc.. it is a very interesting Series and could reward us with many hours of peace and tranquility...

SeeYou

Colors

New Entries

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)

Seeyou