Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
---
Two recent acquisitions:
At the left below, an Indochina air post semi-postal stamp, Scott CB-1, an French colonial omnibus design issued in 1939 and commemorating the French Revolution; at the right, a 1946 Viet Minh semi-postal stamp issued for famine relief following the famines of 1944-45, which killed as many 400,000 to 2,000,000 Vietnamese. The famines resulted from the Japanese occupation of Vietnam, the inept colonial government, floods, and droughts.
A recent Stamporama discussion focussed on stamps as propaganda. The Indochina stamp shown above surely qualifies as pure propaganda, given that “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” were not exactly bywords that the French colonial rulers of Indochina lived by in their dealings with the natives of Cambodia, Laos, and the three regions of Vietnam (Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina). Indochina’s colonial period is considered by many historians to be among the most egregious examples of European colonialism.
The Viet Minh, an abbreviation of the Vietnamese form of “League for the Independence of Vietnam,” was the national independence coalition formed by Ho Chi Minh on May 19, 1941. The majority of Viet Minh stamps were overprinted French Indochina stamps.
Bob
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Just scored this baby last night. It was the second-to-last item on my want list for colonial Iceland (image quality poor, it's from the eBay listing):
Careful observers will note that it's perfed 12.5, not 14x13 like it's more common brother, Scott #2. That makes it Scott #6, catalog value $800 in 1980. I was the only bidder, and paid $50. Seller had it described as SG #2, cataloging at $375 in 1980.
This is a good example of a strategy I employ to score these hard-to-find perf varieties - inexperienced sellers cannot work a perf gauge, apparently. This seller was obviously not a stamp collector. Probably one of those contracted eBay sellers.
Hint: a perf 14x13 stamp will have 13 perforations at the top and bottom. This stamp has only 12. I do note that the perfs at the bottom appear to be trimmed by scissors. In some cases, that might be a sign of a reperf job, but typically, these stamps do not offer marginal material sufficient to do a reperf job to change the perf gauge.
Interestingly, the 1873 issues of Denmark and Iceland have this curious interlude of a few perf 12.5 stamps with the exact same designs as the earlier and later perf 14x13 versions, while Danish West Indies issues do not.
The last item on my want list? Why, it's Scott #30, of course, cataloging at $375 in 1980, but apparently much more scarce than that value indicates. I want it in the normal AND inverted frame varieties, but currently have neither. (Ask me about the Iceland numeral-in-oval inverted frame varieties!)
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GB Scott #155 (1912) Nothing fancy by any means, but it does complete the spaces in my GB album for Downy Heads. (The album has no space for #151b which I just saw on eBay for $14,000.) I am working on the more reasonably priced varieties and shades to put on a separate page.
The 1/2p "Dolphins" and its carmine brother the 1p "Lion Couchant" were the first KGV stamps, issued on Coronation day in 1911. An entire series of the stamps had been planned - up to 1 shilling - but then all hell broke loose. People actually cared about stamps back in the day, and the stamps offended the public and critics for reasons aesthetic and political.
The 3/4 view was new and scary. The Engraving was muddy -- the lines engraved so close together that the ink did not adhere properly. The Lion Couchant on the 1p stamp looked starving. Hardly a proper symbol for Great Britain's Imperial power. Several corrections were made in the ensuing months. The beard cleaned up, the lion fattened, but folks were eager to move on. Only the 1/2p and 1p made it out the gate for a run of two years.
The engraver J.A.C. Harrison would move on to greater things, and wonderful engravings. This was his first attempt at Typographic engraving. Intaglio (recess) engraving was his forte. Conveying an image from a photograph to a Typo (surface) engraving proved challenging.
I am very fond of stamps that bestir such angst. The Kangaroo & Map stamps of Australia being a prime example.
Winedrinker
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Very nice posting, Winedrinker!
Your dialog evokes many examples in my mind, including the Bill Pickett redraw (US), most of the modern US 'cartoon' issues and even the Lincoln penny over it's long life.
I have always greatly admired the work of Czeslaw Slania. A specialty exhibit of his art would be very attractive!
I too, am starting to stray off the path towards completing collections. Those semi-high-value issues can be elusive enough to be quite discouraging. Basically, I've been going through roughly 600 auctions a day looking for a single Iceland stamp, afraid to rely on specific search criteria, because I fear that one being sold by a non-collector (and thus with a too-general description) will slip through my fingers. Gets tedious.
Oddly, you can always find high dollar Columbians, or grilled Banknotes, or $2.60 Zepps, but that mundane perf 13 50 Aur is never to be seen, probably because it's lost in the box full of the much more common perf 14x13 versions of the same stamp. Same for the late-watermark Danish bicolors.
And anymore, I'm much more interested in stamps or covers that have an interesting historical backstory, the spookier the better!
Coming at you offline on your quest for GB numeral cancellations...
-Paul
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Paul,
Is this what you had in mind?
http://www.exponet.info/exhibit.php?exhibit_ID=1074&lng=EN
Do a search on Bing or Google and you will see lots of info about the artist and his stamps. I appreciate his engravings also.
Vince
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Another page filled.
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New Dutch Indies Card.Philb
You need to be careful (joke !). Collecting photos of young girls could lead to a visit by the Thought Police - seeking out closet paedophiles ! The fact that youi collect stamps and postcards, and that said girl is almost certainly a Grandmother (if still around) would cut no ice with such zealots. ( All comments here to be taken as tongue-in-cheek please).
Seriously though I am interested in historic and modern transport, and a number of photographers have been warned off taking photographs of ( empty ) buses outside schools.Also some schools in the UK prohibit taking photographs ( even by parents) at school plays and concerts. While care is needed in such matters, a sense of proportion also helps !
Malcolm
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Finally I have the first 12 of these. The surprisingly difficult to find hexagonal box precancels from Belgium. Issued in sets of 6 from January 1938 to February 1939, so 14 sets of 6.
72 to go!
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Well, what to make of this!
Fr Maximilian Kolbe, often commemorated on stamps, died in Auschwitz reportedly having offered to take the place of a prisoner about to be executed. He died in his cell before the substitute execution could take place. The original victim survived.
I'm glad he is commemorated (e.g. by Germany, SG1664 in 1973, and Poland, SG2844, 3537 and 3926 in 1982, 1994 and 2001; and by San Marino on a 40th anniversary postcard in 1981).
But this 75th anniversary stamp leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth for me, not only because the image itself, complete with what I assume is a representative of Nazi Germany (though apparently Wehrmacht rather than SS), is crassly sentimental, but mainly because the Vatican's record towards some of the perpetrators of the Holocaust (perhaps even some who presided at Auschwitz in 1941) was, let us say, less than honourable and it would appear to be trying to forget that.
Hmm. An uncomfortable stamp.
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I've been accumulating DPO covers, and I found a seller who had a large hoard addressed to a William Potts, in Parkesburg/Cochranville, PA. I purchased a cover last weekend postmarked Springville, Iowa to Mr. Potts, mainly because it had an enclosure. Below is the contents of the letter, reproduced exactly as penned (this will test your pidgin English!). A few data points: Springville, Iowa is in Linn County. There is a cemetery a few miles from Springville called the Crabapple Cemetery. Earlville, Iowa is about 30 miles N of Springville, as the crow flies. I have not figured out the connection between William Potts and Mary (Potts?) Gibson. William Potts father died on October 26, 1877.
november 22 1877
crabaple lin co iowa
der wil and wif i thot
i wod tri and scratch
you a few lines I am so
nerves I cant hardley
write we are al midlin
g well and i hop this
wil find you tha same
when i sow in tha Eel
vil paper that your fath
er was pariliez-d it gave
me a grat shock i am
so sorey your father is ded
for I was in hopes he wo
d com and se us in tha
spring But in tha midbe
st of lif we ar in deth th
a children is al awa to
work John is sheling a grist
of corn wil lost a young
man saterday with tha
colick i sold 9 hogs for 15
dolers and forte 4 cents
we had a big frost last nit
wel wil you forgot too
writ when you got hom
hav you herd enething
abot Nance roberts yet
if you hav let me kno
w whar she is pleas mi
corn crop turned out very
por we had a scant six
bushel potatoes and tha rot som
befor your mother died
we war sitting arond
tha stov and tha table
and seler dor and rom
dor shock hard nile said
what dos that mean i
told him i did not no
and befor your father di
ed i think it was on tha
26 it shok again tel me
if your father noed ewe
ene thing after tha strok
or if he suferd mutch and
what kind of a day he die
d on mage has a son she
cals him carl mi cow dont
giv 4 table sponfuls of mi
lk Tha are bilding a cre
mer 2 miels up tha cri
ck kis babe for me tha
dog throd me don twist
and hurt me bad he ran
against and throd me
backward and hurt mi
neck so i codent hardley
slep for a nit or too cad
got hom from her viset
tha folkes ar so clever
thair she wants too go
back thair again tha
havent had very god crops
for to year som of tha folks
is seling out and moving
too cansas we hav had
som snow and agodeal
of rain we hain’t had
one good weak since oc
tober sit in tha roads is
verey bad com and se
us when you can good
bi der children if we
ver met on erth agai
n i hop weal al be
prepard to meet wha
ir soro never coms in
that blest world above
i remain your afect
antant mary gibson
John sends his lov too al
writ son and tel
me al tha news you
can think of pleas excuse
mi mistaks
let us now how al tha fre
nds is geting along
Yes, the only punctuation was the apostrophe in "hain't"!
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This one came in the mail yesterday. I'd been looking for a nice White Plains sheet at a good price. This one is mint never hinged and without any faults that I can see.
It came in a mount on a poorly cut hand lettered album page. I liked it so I cut it nicely. I think it's going in my album this way, kind of it's provenance!
I bought it from an unknown vendor who just had 60 items for sale on eBay. One downside was that he got $8.99 for shipping and it arrived with $3.50 postage on it. He used two 50 cent Susan B Anthony stamps from the Liberty series of the 1950s and two $1 Eugene O'Neil stamps, none of which were cancelled.
I think the $8.99 postage charge turned a lot of bidders off, so it sold for way below what others being offered (with multiple bids) sold for. I'm a happy camper, and I need to lay off stamp purchases for a few weeks!
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Tom,
Nice looking sheet. That is on my list of missing items from my US collection. I know people get turned off by high shipping fees and won't bid. I just figure the extra cost into what I'm willing to pay.
Here are two new covers for my cancel collection. The first is from Mexico, NY with a negative letter"B". Probably the postmaster's initial at the time in Mexico, NY, George D. Babcock. He served from 3/22/87 to 5/28/91.
The second cover comes from Rome, NY with a negative "R". I just noticed both covers have city names that are also names of cities from around the world.
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Starting a new "New Acquisitions" thread; the last one, which started last October, is getting really long!
---
Two recent acquisitions:
At the left below, an Indochina air post semi-postal stamp, Scott CB-1, an French colonial omnibus design issued in 1939 and commemorating the French Revolution; at the right, a 1946 Viet Minh semi-postal stamp issued for famine relief following the famines of 1944-45, which killed as many 400,000 to 2,000,000 Vietnamese. The famines resulted from the Japanese occupation of Vietnam, the inept colonial government, floods, and droughts.
A recent Stamporama discussion focussed on stamps as propaganda. The Indochina stamp shown above surely qualifies as pure propaganda, given that “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” were not exactly bywords that the French colonial rulers of Indochina lived by in their dealings with the natives of Cambodia, Laos, and the three regions of Vietnam (Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina). Indochina’s colonial period is considered by many historians to be among the most egregious examples of European colonialism.
The Viet Minh, an abbreviation of the Vietnamese form of “League for the Independence of Vietnam,” was the national independence coalition formed by Ho Chi Minh on May 19, 1941. The majority of Viet Minh stamps were overprinted French Indochina stamps.
Bob
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08:27:50pm
re: New Acquisitions #13
Just scored this baby last night. It was the second-to-last item on my want list for colonial Iceland (image quality poor, it's from the eBay listing):
Careful observers will note that it's perfed 12.5, not 14x13 like it's more common brother, Scott #2. That makes it Scott #6, catalog value $800 in 1980. I was the only bidder, and paid $50. Seller had it described as SG #2, cataloging at $375 in 1980.
This is a good example of a strategy I employ to score these hard-to-find perf varieties - inexperienced sellers cannot work a perf gauge, apparently. This seller was obviously not a stamp collector. Probably one of those contracted eBay sellers.
Hint: a perf 14x13 stamp will have 13 perforations at the top and bottom. This stamp has only 12. I do note that the perfs at the bottom appear to be trimmed by scissors. In some cases, that might be a sign of a reperf job, but typically, these stamps do not offer marginal material sufficient to do a reperf job to change the perf gauge.
Interestingly, the 1873 issues of Denmark and Iceland have this curious interlude of a few perf 12.5 stamps with the exact same designs as the earlier and later perf 14x13 versions, while Danish West Indies issues do not.
The last item on my want list? Why, it's Scott #30, of course, cataloging at $375 in 1980, but apparently much more scarce than that value indicates. I want it in the normal AND inverted frame varieties, but currently have neither. (Ask me about the Iceland numeral-in-oval inverted frame varieties!)
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re: New Acquisitions #13
GB Scott #155 (1912) Nothing fancy by any means, but it does complete the spaces in my GB album for Downy Heads. (The album has no space for #151b which I just saw on eBay for $14,000.) I am working on the more reasonably priced varieties and shades to put on a separate page.
The 1/2p "Dolphins" and its carmine brother the 1p "Lion Couchant" were the first KGV stamps, issued on Coronation day in 1911. An entire series of the stamps had been planned - up to 1 shilling - but then all hell broke loose. People actually cared about stamps back in the day, and the stamps offended the public and critics for reasons aesthetic and political.
The 3/4 view was new and scary. The Engraving was muddy -- the lines engraved so close together that the ink did not adhere properly. The Lion Couchant on the 1p stamp looked starving. Hardly a proper symbol for Great Britain's Imperial power. Several corrections were made in the ensuing months. The beard cleaned up, the lion fattened, but folks were eager to move on. Only the 1/2p and 1p made it out the gate for a run of two years.
The engraver J.A.C. Harrison would move on to greater things, and wonderful engravings. This was his first attempt at Typographic engraving. Intaglio (recess) engraving was his forte. Conveying an image from a photograph to a Typo (surface) engraving proved challenging.
I am very fond of stamps that bestir such angst. The Kangaroo & Map stamps of Australia being a prime example.
Winedrinker
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07:11:03am
re: New Acquisitions #13
Very nice posting, Winedrinker!
Your dialog evokes many examples in my mind, including the Bill Pickett redraw (US), most of the modern US 'cartoon' issues and even the Lincoln penny over it's long life.
I have always greatly admired the work of Czeslaw Slania. A specialty exhibit of his art would be very attractive!
I too, am starting to stray off the path towards completing collections. Those semi-high-value issues can be elusive enough to be quite discouraging. Basically, I've been going through roughly 600 auctions a day looking for a single Iceland stamp, afraid to rely on specific search criteria, because I fear that one being sold by a non-collector (and thus with a too-general description) will slip through my fingers. Gets tedious.
Oddly, you can always find high dollar Columbians, or grilled Banknotes, or $2.60 Zepps, but that mundane perf 13 50 Aur is never to be seen, probably because it's lost in the box full of the much more common perf 14x13 versions of the same stamp. Same for the late-watermark Danish bicolors.
And anymore, I'm much more interested in stamps or covers that have an interesting historical backstory, the spookier the better!
Coming at you offline on your quest for GB numeral cancellations...
-Paul
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re: New Acquisitions #13
Paul,
Is this what you had in mind?
http://www.exponet.info/exhibit.php?exhibit_ID=1074&lng=EN
Do a search on Bing or Google and you will see lots of info about the artist and his stamps. I appreciate his engravings also.
Vince
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re: New Acquisitions #13
Another page filled.
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05:09:52am
re: New Acquisitions #13
Philb
You need to be careful (joke !). Collecting photos of young girls could lead to a visit by the Thought Police - seeking out closet paedophiles ! The fact that youi collect stamps and postcards, and that said girl is almost certainly a Grandmother (if still around) would cut no ice with such zealots. ( All comments here to be taken as tongue-in-cheek please).
Seriously though I am interested in historic and modern transport, and a number of photographers have been warned off taking photographs of ( empty ) buses outside schools.Also some schools in the UK prohibit taking photographs ( even by parents) at school plays and concerts. While care is needed in such matters, a sense of proportion also helps !
Malcolm
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re: New Acquisitions #13
Finally I have the first 12 of these. The surprisingly difficult to find hexagonal box precancels from Belgium. Issued in sets of 6 from January 1938 to February 1939, so 14 sets of 6.
72 to go!
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re: New Acquisitions #13
Well, what to make of this!
Fr Maximilian Kolbe, often commemorated on stamps, died in Auschwitz reportedly having offered to take the place of a prisoner about to be executed. He died in his cell before the substitute execution could take place. The original victim survived.
I'm glad he is commemorated (e.g. by Germany, SG1664 in 1973, and Poland, SG2844, 3537 and 3926 in 1982, 1994 and 2001; and by San Marino on a 40th anniversary postcard in 1981).
But this 75th anniversary stamp leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth for me, not only because the image itself, complete with what I assume is a representative of Nazi Germany (though apparently Wehrmacht rather than SS), is crassly sentimental, but mainly because the Vatican's record towards some of the perpetrators of the Holocaust (perhaps even some who presided at Auschwitz in 1941) was, let us say, less than honourable and it would appear to be trying to forget that.
Hmm. An uncomfortable stamp.
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04:07:49pm
re: New Acquisitions #13
I've been accumulating DPO covers, and I found a seller who had a large hoard addressed to a William Potts, in Parkesburg/Cochranville, PA. I purchased a cover last weekend postmarked Springville, Iowa to Mr. Potts, mainly because it had an enclosure. Below is the contents of the letter, reproduced exactly as penned (this will test your pidgin English!). A few data points: Springville, Iowa is in Linn County. There is a cemetery a few miles from Springville called the Crabapple Cemetery. Earlville, Iowa is about 30 miles N of Springville, as the crow flies. I have not figured out the connection between William Potts and Mary (Potts?) Gibson. William Potts father died on October 26, 1877.
november 22 1877
crabaple lin co iowa
der wil and wif i thot
i wod tri and scratch
you a few lines I am so
nerves I cant hardley
write we are al midlin
g well and i hop this
wil find you tha same
when i sow in tha Eel
vil paper that your fath
er was pariliez-d it gave
me a grat shock i am
so sorey your father is ded
for I was in hopes he wo
d com and se us in tha
spring But in tha midbe
st of lif we ar in deth th
a children is al awa to
work John is sheling a grist
of corn wil lost a young
man saterday with tha
colick i sold 9 hogs for 15
dolers and forte 4 cents
we had a big frost last nit
wel wil you forgot too
writ when you got hom
hav you herd enething
abot Nance roberts yet
if you hav let me kno
w whar she is pleas mi
corn crop turned out very
por we had a scant six
bushel potatoes and tha rot som
befor your mother died
we war sitting arond
tha stov and tha table
and seler dor and rom
dor shock hard nile said
what dos that mean i
told him i did not no
and befor your father di
ed i think it was on tha
26 it shok again tel me
if your father noed ewe
ene thing after tha strok
or if he suferd mutch and
what kind of a day he die
d on mage has a son she
cals him carl mi cow dont
giv 4 table sponfuls of mi
lk Tha are bilding a cre
mer 2 miels up tha cri
ck kis babe for me tha
dog throd me don twist
and hurt me bad he ran
against and throd me
backward and hurt mi
neck so i codent hardley
slep for a nit or too cad
got hom from her viset
tha folkes ar so clever
thair she wants too go
back thair again tha
havent had very god crops
for to year som of tha folks
is seling out and moving
too cansas we hav had
som snow and agodeal
of rain we hain’t had
one good weak since oc
tober sit in tha roads is
verey bad com and se
us when you can good
bi der children if we
ver met on erth agai
n i hop weal al be
prepard to meet wha
ir soro never coms in
that blest world above
i remain your afect
antant mary gibson
John sends his lov too al
writ son and tel
me al tha news you
can think of pleas excuse
mi mistaks
let us now how al tha fre
nds is geting along
Yes, the only punctuation was the apostrophe in "hain't"!
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re: New Acquisitions #13
This one came in the mail yesterday. I'd been looking for a nice White Plains sheet at a good price. This one is mint never hinged and without any faults that I can see.
It came in a mount on a poorly cut hand lettered album page. I liked it so I cut it nicely. I think it's going in my album this way, kind of it's provenance!
I bought it from an unknown vendor who just had 60 items for sale on eBay. One downside was that he got $8.99 for shipping and it arrived with $3.50 postage on it. He used two 50 cent Susan B Anthony stamps from the Liberty series of the 1950s and two $1 Eugene O'Neil stamps, none of which were cancelled.
I think the $8.99 postage charge turned a lot of bidders off, so it sold for way below what others being offered (with multiple bids) sold for. I'm a happy camper, and I need to lay off stamp purchases for a few weeks!
4 Members
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re: New Acquisitions #13
Tom,
Nice looking sheet. That is on my list of missing items from my US collection. I know people get turned off by high shipping fees and won't bid. I just figure the extra cost into what I'm willing to pay.
Here are two new covers for my cancel collection. The first is from Mexico, NY with a negative letter"B". Probably the postmaster's initial at the time in Mexico, NY, George D. Babcock. He served from 3/22/87 to 5/28/91.
The second cover comes from Rome, NY with a negative "R". I just noticed both covers have city names that are also names of cities from around the world.
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