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Last night , I started the classification of some Romanian stamps for my next post ... I made the usual work with 4 stamps and them I new I had a group of replacements for stamps already in the collection... suddenly , I saw something that troubled me... This post is about that particular group of replacement stamps and the Urgent need to have National Catalogs...

So , let us begin by presenting the first group of fresh new entries into the collection..

Romania 1872 "King Carol I (Paris Print)" (7) [Des (?)][Typo] Sc(55,56,57,58)

Let us first see where are we standing... from 1858 to 1872 (this year , exactly..) the stamps were not perforated.. in 1872 , before this series , there was another perforated 12.5 series..
After this series there is the Bucharest Print series, with different perforations and a poor impression...
This "Paris Print Series" is marked by it's fine or good impression and for the 14 x 13.5 perforation.[ no wmk ]
As you can see the impression is good ( some stamps from this period have a very bad impression...!) and the perforation is the expected ... this particular group of 4 also have a general good condition, what makes them fine additions to the collection.

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Replacements

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At a first and general view we can see that there are good and bad stamps in these group... now you are beginning to question yourself "why does he need bad stamps as replacements??"
The good stamps are 15b,25b(violet),40b, and 50b .. they are indeed good replacements..
The bad stamps are the 10b and the 25b(blue).. (very poorly centered and bad perforations..)..
Now I must say that the reason of this post is somehow linked to these 2  Bad stamps!!!..

some considerations are now needed.. :
these are all stamps from a series from 1893/1899 representing again King Carol I...
this series was printed with several kinds of papers,and this difference is well marked even for me ( as I noticed several times before , I'm an absolute beginner in what concerns to papers and the ability to feel the differences between them...) ..
The series also use always the same portrait of the King but several different frames.. (4 just in this small group of 8..) ; the perforations go from 11.5 to 13.5..
Now let us focus on what really is interesting... The series is watermarked with 2 different wmk (Wmk Scott 164 and Wmk Scott 200).. As you can see I am using the Scott World Catalog..

[left] Wmk 164
[Right] Wmk 200
they are basically the same but written with different labels..

Another interesting thing we must notice , is that wmk's must be seen and studied in the back of the stamp... In the image of wmk 200 is clearly visible that the label 'Romania' is seen from the back of the stamp...


the wmk's are not visible the same way in the 8 stamps ( this is surely because of the difference in the papers used..)(in the case of the 10b the wmk is visible even in the scan itself..!.) ; so I pick 6 of the stamps and I'm going to show the scan of the stamp to the left and to the right a photo of the back of the stamp...

clearly visible the wmk 164

inverted Wmk 200

Wmk 164

Inverted Wmk 200 

Wmk 164
( rust spots don't frighten' me...I like them.. they are old!!)

Wmk 164 






The Scott Catalog tell us that "This Watermark may be found in four versions : Wmk 164, Wmk 200 and variations."  ... Now I am reaching the point where I must say that it is not enough...
If we want to classify correctly all our stamps , we MUST HAVE NATIONAL CATALOGS or specialized catalogs for each country...
I cannot proceed without knowing if this ' inverted Wmk 200' is one of the Variations 'Scott' was talking about ...
Now , You could hear me screaming for HELP , because I need someone to tell me what is the code of this variation , what is the other variation missing and if it is not much trouble , What is the Price of a Romania Catalog??!!..( does it contain information about designers and engravers???)

Sorry for a long post about a  so 'short' question, but when I found this 'variation' I immediately think about making this post ...
And now the conclusion : don't mess with ' Early Romanian Stamps'  , unless you are prepared..!!!

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