SLOPPY

In the early 1900s, the Swiss started to print special sheets for booklet panes. These sheets consisted of rows of 10, and the layout was as follows: three stamps upright, an empty stamp-size field, three stamps upright and finally three stamps inverted. Now, if you picture this in your mind, it's clear to see that these sheets yield both tête-bêche pairs and gutter pairs. And it's the gutter pairs which I'm showing you today.

The empty stamp-size field was prone to be used for the forgery of stamps, so the Swiss PTT had to do something with those field. That's why they decided to punch a hole through them. Now, the thing with these holes is, that they exist in circular form, and in not really circular form. This one here, like the first image, is of the not circular type.

And here is a more carefully produced hole, lovely and circular.

I wonder whether more than one perforator was used, with either a circular or not circular pin, or whether the not circular hole was just a matter of deteriorating material. The latter could well be the case for later, a smaller hole was punched through the paper.

:-)

Adrian

TOMORROW

Okay, so it took a little longer, but here's that Swiss cover I told you about in my last post.

As you can see, the stamp was cancelled with an ordinary Yverdon date cancel, on 16 August 1919. And this is the special airmail cancel on the back:

I've also seen them in French and I suppose there might well be an Italian version too, but I haven't come across one of those. I believe the fourth official Swiss language, Romansh, was normally never used for things like this. Whenever the Swiss did issue multi-langual stamp sets (or postal stationery), it was, as far as I know, always in German, French and Italian. But do prove me wrong if you can!

:-)

Adrian

STAYING UP

It's funny how you take things for granted that were so incredibly special just a few decades ago. Air mail for example; nowadays you wouldn't probably even know which stamps were for air mail unless it specifically says so on the stamp. I don't think there's many proper air mail issues anymore now. But you don't have to go that far back in time to find that things were very different. In the late 1910s, early 1920s the first air mail stamps were issued, and these were not general air mail stamps like so many of the later issues, these were issues for a few or sometimes just even one specific flight route! Which is really amazing when you think of it! Take for example this stamp here:

It is from a set of three air mail stamps issued in Czechoslovakia on 11 August 1920. Each value was issued for a specific route. This 28kc on 1000h was issued for flights from Prague to London. It came with a special air mail label with the route on. I would love to have a cover with those stamps plus labels on! If I get one, I'll show it to you! What I do have is a Swiss cover from the same period. It has the very first Swiss air mail stamp on.

This stamp was issued on 30 April 1919, and was issued for flights between Zürich, Bern and Lausanne. The covers from those period had a special air mail cancel on the back, because the stamps themselves were cancelled with an ordinary circular date cancel. I haven't scanned that cover yet, but I will show it to you soon, probably tomorrow.

:-)

Adrian

OVER THE MOON!

My blog readers of old will know that I've written many entries on the Swiss landscapes definitives of 1934-48. These can still be found under "Switzerland" in the country list on your left. This was basically my first attempt to build a specialised collection of a definitive set and therefore still holds a special place among my stamp books. Through the years I've managed to lay my hands on some relatively rare and unusual stuff, but none as rare and unique as the item which I received earlier this week.

It's an unaccepted design by Rösli from the 1933 Post Office competition for designs for a future definitive set. Although the write-up does not specifically mention that it is linked to the 1934 definitive set, the timing of the competition and the subject matter would let us safely conclude that it is. Apparently this was the first time the item was on the philatelic market. There was a second design but I'm afraid that had already been sold before I was notified.... Never mind, I'm as happy as a lark!

:-)

Adrian

SPECIMENS

I had a look on the Ask Phil site, just to confirm whether I was right, and I was! From 1879, postal authorities had to distribute copies of their stamps to the members of the Universal Postal Union, the UPU. This was done for identification purposes so that it was known which officially issued stamps were in circulation and could be found on mail from foreign countries. These stamps were given the overprint "specimen". Obviously, only small quantitites of these overprinted stamps were produced and they add spice to any collection! The site does not mention whether this is till done today, or when this practice stopped, but I believe that e.g. Germany still issues stamps with a "Muster" overprint and I know that the Belgian bird definitives are presented to government ministers, with I believe a number printed on the stamp (on the back?).

Here's a specimen overprint in red on a 1937 stamp from Switzerland.

These definitives were overprinted for use of officials of the League of Nations. Nice!

:-)

Adrian

SWITZERLAND - LANDSCHAFTSBILDER

The Landschaftsbilder definitives could also be used to pay any postage due on underfranked mail. The stamps were affixed to the envelope after the amount due was paid and were then cancelled with a T in a circle.

Now I know that in 1955, some six months before the Landschaftsbilder stamps were invalidated, a new cancellation type was introduced with a large T. These are therefore quite rare on this definitive set. I suppose that the example shown here is the cancellation in use before that new version. The Stanley Gibbons catalogue mentions that from 1954 postage stamps were used in place of postage due stamps, but I have no further information at all. If anybody knows anything about this, I'd love to know.

I just received the latest newsletter of the Helvetia Philatelic Society in Britain with lots of new information (for me) about this set. Like how many cylinders were printed, when they were printed, dates of printing, etc. It's so good to be a member of a specialised society because the wealth of information available to you is unbelievable!

:-)

Adrian

SWITZERLAND - LANDSCHAFTSBILDER

I'm a lucky man! Not only have I finally been able to lay my hands on a few Swiss landscapes definitives booklets, but now I've even managed to get a part sheet, made for booklet panes!

These booklet panes contain 2 rows of 3 stamps and are printed in sheets of 10 rows of 10 stamps, the 10th "stamp" being a stamp-size unprinted label in the sheet to make the margin for collation into booklets.

This item is the left part of a sheet, out of which 2 columns of booklets could be made (hence the tête-bêche pairs, to make it clear where the sheet should be cut). The part that is missing is the second half of the unprinted label and three more stamps.

These sheets had been made available to collectors from the early 1900s, but most were split up in tête-bêche pairs and interspace pairs. So whole or part sheets are hard to come by.

The unprinted labels could be used by forgerers, so they were perforated through the middle.


:-)
Adrian

SWITZERLAND - LANDSCHAFTSBILDER

When I was browsing through the postcard section of Ebay the other day, I suddenly thought it might be a good idea to see if I could find postcards of the views that are depicted on the landscapes set. I didn't want any modern ones or artist's impressions or such, I just wanted good old photographic images of the sites.

I couldn't believe my eyes that within minutes I had found a postcard of the St Gotthard railway which looked exactly like the 20c stamp!

Isn't it amazing?! I found lots of others too, and now there's only three proving hard to find. I did finally find a postcard depicting Lake Seealp and Mt Säntis (40c stamp) just recently but that was from Poland and the write-up was so confusing (and mainly in Polish) that I did not go for that one. But at least I know there's one there so I'll find it eventually!

:-)
Adrian

SWITZERLAND - LANDSCHAFTSBILDER

I've just asked to be a member of the Helvetia Philatelic Society here in the UK and I was kindly sent some old newsletters. As soon as I opened the first one, I read what I had been wondering about for some time. I picked up this cover the other day and was told it was special, but I hadn't yet found out why.
This cover is franked with 18c: 3c because it was bulk printed matter (50 items or more) and another 15c because it was a cash on delivery item (up to 5f).

As you can see, the stamps are cancelled with a PP cancel. What I've found out is that this cancel was used specifically for the bulk printer matter rate so you'll find it fairly often on the 3c stamp. But to find the cancel on any other stamp is quite unusual !

So it goes to show, you have to read and read and read when you're working on a collection because there is so much philatelic information out there and the more you know, the more interesting your collection becomes!

see ya
Adrian

SWITZERLAND - LANDSCHAFTSBILDER

Where was I... yes, those bags full of 'unsorted' stamps. I'm usually quite weary of those as 'unpicked' usually means 'nothing much of interest left in there'. But when you're looking for specific things like varieties or postmarks you could be lucky, for not everybody knows what to look for or can be bothered!

That's why I bought this bag of some thousand used 10c Landschaftsbilder the other day. I was hoping I'd find something interesting cancellation wise (like a large 'postage due' T cancellation) and I was trying to get some shades together.

But what I found was a used coil stamp with the full numeral still intact, albeit rather vague. The early Landschaftsbilder coil stamps were unnumbered but from 1936 onwards there was a number printed on the back of every fifth stamp. Now, these numbers were printed over the gum, so used copies usually have lost their numbers. But sometimes there is still a bit of residue left and if you're lucky you'll be able to find a used coil with the full numeral still visible.

The scan does not really do this justice but the numeral here is J1435.

So you see, you can sometimes find interesting items in those dubious unsorted bags! My find made the buy worth while in one go and I've only sorted like 1/10th of the whole bag!

:-)
Adrian

SWITZERLAND - LANDSCHAFTSBILDER



Field post cancellations always add extra spice to a collection. This cover here bears a cancellation of "Verpfl. Abt. 4 Feldpost" on the 10c Landschaftsbilder of 1939. The sender is Hans Scholer, who was part of the medical staff there. I had a quick look on Google to see whether the names of both sender and recipient would yield anything and apparently there is a medical Hans Schöler but the dates don't seem to match. The dates of a certain Max Lauber (again connections in medical field) would match however, so who knows what the contents of this cover would have been like! Maybe just friends, or maybe being in search of medical advice? Intriguing!

See ya!
Adrian

SWITZERLAND - LANDSCHAFTSBILDER


Damaged stamp? Chuck cover in the bin? NO!! It may look a bit tatty and worn, but these coil stamp covers are worth hanging on to. Coil stamps are often obtained from stamp dispensing machines, either as a single stamp or stuck onto the cover directly by that same machine. If the machine is not adjusted properly, it may not dispense properly cut stamps but slightly miscut stamps. If this goes on and on it will eventually dispense stamps which it has cut more or less through the middle. Covers with these stamps on are a real bonus!

Especially when we are dealing with older coil stamps, from the times they did not have a printed number on the back or special perforations or whatever. A miscut stamp on cover is usually the only way to determine positively that a stamp is a coil stamp and not a sheet stamp. Stamps off cover are to easy to fiddle with, so the older stamps should be collected on cover.

If you're not a cover collector but do want to have older coil stamps off cover, it is worth looking out for stamps with paper joints as these only happen on coil stamps too. But beware of forgeries!

Take care
Adrian

SWITZERLAND - LANDSCHAFTSBILDER


Have just updated my 5c pages with the two types of the recess-printed stamp. And I don't mean the two types of paper because that is really quite easy. No, these are actually two varieties, consisting of an interrupted line above the group of housing (just to the top left of the darker shaded bit) in "type 1" and an uninterrupted line in "type 2". See image.

As I said, both are classified as varieties in the Zumstein catalogue, but only type 2 has a premium. But if type 2 had been a damaged cylinder, then type 1 would not have been classified as a variety. So both varieties must have existed independently, which would perhaps point to two different cylinders being used? I don't have any information at all regarding cylinder numbers for this set so if anybody knows anything at all about this, please let me know!

Take care
Adrian

SWITZERLAND - LANDSCHAFTSBILDER

It has taken me ages to understand the principle of "Doppelprägung" as mentioned in the Zumstein Spezialkatalog Schweiz, as I understood it to occur during printing; like a double printing. Having only explanations in German and French at my disposal didn't help either! But I've been doing some reading again last night and I've now finally grasped it!

The thing is that the stamp die is transferred to a roller. This roller in its turn transfers the image onto the printing cylinder. On the image you can see the spikes (the lines of the die) on the roller making indents on the printing cylinder. These indented lines (recesses) will later be filled with ink and then the stamp is printed by letting the paper suck up the printing ink. And the result is a recess-printed stamp!

Transferring the image from the roller onto the cylinder has to be done in a to-and-fro movement because one go will not make the recesses deep enough. So the movement has to be repeated several times (at least 4, it says in Zumstein) and if something goes wrong, like a slight misalignment, a new indent is made rather than having the existing one deepened, and this is a Doppelprägung, or re-entry. These lines are obviously very faint, but on this example here, you can see them reasonably well on the left stamp. Look below the 4 !


Take care
Adrian