Here you can identify your weird stamps and at the same time help other people out



#41
I am at a loss to identify this oriental stamp. Your assistance would be much appreciated!
Thanks for any information you may provide!!!

Posted by Derrick Grose on 21/01/98

ANSWERS:

#41 is from Japan. It is some kind of label issued by the Japanese Government Printing Office (which also prints Japanese Banknotes) as said in the 7 characters beneath the picture. My guess is that it is related to some kind of festival celebration regarding the Emperor of Japan, either coronation or marriage. The 4 words in the middle say 'good things coming this way'.
Ray Chen



#42
I am at a loss to identify this oriental stamp. Your assistance would be much appreciated!
Thanks for any information you may provide!!!

Posted by Derrick Grose on 21/01/98

ANSWERS:

#42 City revenue stamp from Japan.
Ray Chen

#42: This is a revenue stamp from Osaka, "Use according to 1916 regulation" is what it says.
Paul Luchter (21 Sep 99)



#43
I am at a loss to identify this oriental stamp. Your assistance would be much appreciated!
Thanks for any information you may provide!!!

Posted by Derrick Grose on 21/01/98

ANSWERS:

#43 Revenue stamp from Japan. "Jade" county revenue stamp, 5 cent may be. By the way the picture is upside down.
Ray Chen



#44
Is this a charity stamp from Turkey or is it just a label with no postal value?

Posted by Stefano on 16/01/98

ANSWERS:

This stamp has the inscription Yoksullara yardim cemiyeti - which translated means Poor Assistance Organization. There is another inscription going up and down - Balmumcu. This is a district in Istanbul. The stamp is a private charity label. It was probably sold to generate money and tolerated on the mails.
Alp Berker



#45
I haven't been able to properly classify this stamp. It resembles what, according to my catalogue (Catalogo Unificato), is the temporary issue from Split, yet it doesn't match the illustration my catalogue presents. Either my catalogue is wrong, or this is not the issue from Split.
This particular stamp was cancelled in Split, anyway.

Posted by Stefano on 16/01/98

ANSWERS:

#45 Found in Michel as Jugoslavia/Croatia #21, 1945, surcharge applied in Split.
Rick Scott

-I have checked my catalogue (Stanley Gibbons' Part 3: Balkans; 1982 edition) and the overprint matches the illustration of the Split overprint.
Dave Joll



#46
I was wondering if you could tell me about this stamp. I am so lost you will never know. I can not find it in the catalogs and I have not an idea what it may be worth. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Posted by Sue Evans on 27/01/98

ANSWERS:

This stamp is classified by Michel Germany as Feldpostmarke #3. Issued in November 1944 to allow families to send goods to their soldiers on battle fields. Its value is pretty high if originally cancelled, even higher if it's on a fragment or an envelope. Beware of forged cancels.
Stefano

This is a German military parcel post stamp issued in 1944. It is listed in Scott's 1998 catalogue as MO3 and priced at .90 mint ($1.50 unhinged) or 60.00 postally used. There is a note that forged surcharges exist.
Derrick Grose



#47
Only a local revenue stamp from India? Is there any evidence of a postal use of it?

Posted by Stefano on 01/02/98

ANSWERS:

This is a revenue stamp from the State of Bihar in India. This has never been officially authorised for postal use. If found to be postally used, it would be due to an oversight of the postal authorities.
Samik Nandi



#48
What is this? (Bayerisches Staatseisenbahnen stands for Bavarian State Railways).

Posted by Stefano on 01/02/98

ANSWERS:

These are indeed stamps issued by the Bavarian State Railways. They also exist with the inscription "Kgl. Bayer. Staatseisenb.", an abbreviation of the German "Koenigliche Bayerische Staatseisenbahngesellschaft", which translates as "Royal Bavarian State Railway Company".
These Bavarian State Railway stamps were issued in a variety of colors, all in the same basic design -- including a spoked wheel with angel- or eagle-like wings on both sides. These stamps were issued for the prepayment of the charge for shipping small parcels by rail.
Many countries (as well as private railway companies, in the U.S. and elsewhere) have issued these, including Great Britain, New Zealand, Prussia, Imperial Germany, etc. However, the major postage stamp catalogs list only stamps issued by governments, not those issued by railway companies -- even those that, like the Royal Bavarian State Railway Company, are actually government-owned.
Neal Bruckman

This is a railway parcel stamp from the Bavarian State Railway. The Dusterbehn catalog lists 52 different stamps issued between 1904-1920.
Rick Scott

This is a railway-stamp, so it is not sold by the postal authorities, but by (in this case) the Bavarian railway-company. The German Michel catalogue does not mention them, because they are no postage stamps. That is somewhat strange, since they do mention the Belgian railway-stamps in their catalogue. A railway-stamp is used for paying the railway-company for transporting (usually) a parcel. So they are most often found on the papers that go with a parcel.
John Pigmans



#49
A stamp overprinted by Nagorno-Karabakh authorities? Does any catalogue list this issue? Note Stepanakert written in latin alphabet and the small HKP (Nagorno-Karabakhskaja Respublika) in cyrillic. I can't make out what the other writing is.

Posted by Stefano on 01/02/98

ANSWERS:

Stepanakert is the capital of Nagorno-Karabach, an autonomous region in Azerbaijan that wants to be (is?) independent. I've seen a variety of stamps from this area, but no catalog. Like the other ex-USSR "locals", most are likely to be private or bogus issues.
Rick Scott

Agree with Rick, most likely to be bogus, but some Nagorno-Karabakh have been found on international mail. My attempts to respond to mail, addressing the envelope either
Stepanakert, via Armenia
or Stepanakert via Azerbaijan
have been returned with an endorsement that they cannot be delivered by reason of war (written in French, international post language).

ARTSAKH is local name for N-K. They have a great website but I've lost the address. If you do a search and find it, you'll find a picture of the monument shown on the overprint.
Ian Billings



#50
What is this overprint? What does it mean? Is it something similar to a perfin?

Posted by Stefano on 01/02/98

ANSWERS:

You're exactly right. Most modern British definitives exist with overprints to identify their users, to make them (exactly like perfins) difficult to use by anyone else.
However, you'll never (I think) find one postally used. These stamp issues are valid for either postage or revenue use, and you'll only find them overprinted to pay documentary revenue tax.
Neal Bruckman

This appears to be a security overprint from Great Britain. These stamps were overprinted with initials or companies' names for the same revenue protection motivations as perfins, but those I've seen have been used for revenue rather than postal use.
Rick Scott

The NTGB overprint is indeed for non-postal purposes. I believe it may stand for the "National Trust of Great Britain", but that's only a guess. These are more common on tax bills from gas and electricity companies.
Thomas M. Fortunato

This is a security overprint (performing the same function as a perfin). It is also correct that these were usually printed on stamps used for revenue purposes rather than for postage. However, the obligation to pay a 2d stamp duty charge on receipts was abolished many years ago (at least in the early 1960s).
The correct name of the National Trust (a leading conservation body) is 'The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty', and I'm afraid that the 'NTGB' on this item is more likely to be 'North Thames Gas Board'!
Andrew Riddell

The explanations for item #50 have been correct. The stamp is what is called a "commercial overprint", and is very much like a perfin. British firms had to pay a 2d duty (1d until 1920) on each receipt they gave. The Brits used to have special adhesive revenue stamps, but they got smart and began printing Postage Revenue on their stamps - making them valid for either postage or revenue. But then employees started dipping into the stocks of stamps that were kept on hand to pay the receipt duty, so companies began using perfins or overprints to make such pilferage and misuse easier to spot. The government began to discourage the use of perfins, so overprints became the standard - and that is why you see so many of them, almost all with non-postal cancels. Commercial overprints were not valid for postage, but they are known postally used. They are not really rare (kind of like improperly used perfins), but they are very collectible - particularly on cover. The whole scheme ended in 1970, when the receipt duty was abolished in a major overhaul of the tax program.
Dick Foreman


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