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Monday, May 4, 2015

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




2 comments:

  1. Found some old stamps need help.

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  2. Hi there, could you please help me with a similar stamp. It is imperforated and i can't any. May have this been cut after they were made. Ive had them nearly 30 years and my pops neighbour was about 90. He was a scientist in the US army so i ended up with a few rare war maps etc. He never cut any of them. I can't see him cutting a stamp. Where these stamps ever released imperforated? Thanks, Vanessa

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