The Philatelic Review
Philatelist, postal historian, writer. Stamps, covers and cards from Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Portugal, Romania, Thailand.
- Picture postcard sent by a British visitor to #Ottoman #Palestine in 1913, the 1 pi stamp postmarked ‘ERIHA (JERUSALEM)’ = #JERICHO 11-9-(19)13, to Tottenham in London. There’s also a ‘#JÉRUSALEM 3’ transit mark from the following day.
- Stamps from #Nederland #Netherlands had brilliant designs for much of the 20th century. This beautiful semi-postal set, issued issued in aid of the Cultural and Social Relief Fund in 1957, featured merchant ships. Look at that whale on the 7+5c stamp!
- I bought a small and inexpensive collection of #Netherlands stamps at the Charing Cross Collectors' Fair in London this morning. Here's the 1923 set (minus the three top values!) commemorating the 25th anniversary of Queen Wilhelmina's accession:
- #Romania: June 1876 postal card uprated with 'Paris' 5b stamp, from Bucharest to Berlin. The sender, senior postal official Georges Bascovitz, offers to sell various Romanian stamps including first issue 27pa and 54pa 'Bull's Heads'.
- From an 'old-time' collection (dated 1944) of #Ottoman #Turkey, a complete sheet (in halves) of the 25 piastres 1871 'Duloz' postage due. These were probably from the remainders sold to the stamp trade and aren't in fine condition, but this top value is scarce in such large blocks
- #România: I like the 'Cifra' definitives (1889-94), which were a great improvement in design terms over their cluttered 'Vulturi' predecessors. These blocks of four are from the 'remainders' which were cancelled by Bucharest 17 SEP 95 datestamps and sold to the philatelic trade:
- #Romania, Feb 1879: a scarce solo usage of a 'Bucharest I' 30b stamp to pay the first-step UPU foreign letter rate. Unfortunately, the cover is slightly marred by the red arrow firmly glued on by a previous owner. To avoid damage, I’ve decided to leave it in place for now…
- My interest in the early postal cards of #Romania extends to incoming mail: here's a card from Geneva, #Switzerland, uprated with a 5c 'Sitting Helvetia' stamp, sent to Bucharest in September 1878.
- #Romania, 1877-79: 'Bucharest I' 10b. Can you see the constant flaw? This & many others probably resulted from printing clichés made in Paris being cleaned before use in Bucharest. They were probably as delicate as those modern hobs that you should only clean with a soft cloth...
- I could not resist a bargain-priced collection of 1000 post-Independence #Indian stamps. Very different from my specialised 19th century Romania, but highly interesting - particularly for the cultural, historical and political insights they provide.
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- #Romania: a stamp-on-a-stamp to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Moldavia's 'Bull's Heads' (1958) and a stamp-on-a-stamp-on-a-stamp to mark the 15th Universal Postal Union congress (1963). Unfortunately, I don't seem to have a Bull's Head to hand to complete the picture...
- #Romania: these are NOT examples of the 1879 5b blue 'error of colour', but Bucharest II 5b green and blue-green stamps chemically altered to look like the error. Optimistic vendors sometimes present these as the real thing, but they are worthless fakes...
- #Romania: at first glance, these look like unconvincing forgeries of ‘Paris-Bucharest’ stamps. But an alternative view is that they are unofficial reprints made from original printing clichés…
- #Romania, 1879 'Bucharest 2': a trio of superb imperforate 5b, 10b & 15b values? No, these are all fakes, made by cutting off the perfs from what were once stunningly large examples of these stamps. As a philatelist, it's important to be sceptical...otherwise, you can waste money
- #Romania, the ‘Bucharest II’ 10b Plate 2 wasn’t discovered until well into the 20th century. Used for only 6 months in 1879, probably 700-750,000 were printed. There’s a block of 81 including the 5b value error, but few other large multiples. These are the best I’ve found:
- #Romania, 1879: ‘Bucharest II’ 50 bani: matching strips of three plate proofs (top) and used issued stamps (lower) showing the same plate flaws - for example, the upper and lower framelines of the proof/stamp on the right:
- #Romania, 1879 ‘Bucharest II’ 1½ bani. This value was used for franking newspapers and is very common used. But this unused block of 70 may be unique...
- #Romania, 1879: often termed an ‘error of colour’, the 5 bani blue is actually an error of value caused by a 5b cliché being mistakenly inserted into a new 10b printing plate. I was very happy indeed to find this new example, postmarked MIZILU 4 JUN 79, for my collection today:
- Here’s an 1873 #Romanian postal card, sent within the city of Brăila to a telegraph operator. Intriguingly, the message on the back is in code…
- A visiting philatelic friend from #Romania noticed an overlooked scarce item - a notable error, in fact! - in my collection: the 1919 10 bani without 'P.T.T.-F.F.' overprint (shown at right).
- Here’s the earliest recorded #Romanian postal card uprated with an adhesive stamp (5 bani 'Paris') for sending to a foreign destination. It went from Iaşi to #Lviv (then Austrian-controlled and known as Lemberg; later Львов or Lvov during Soviet times) on 1 April 1874.
- Still enjoying sorting out my used #British #Machin #stamps - the classics of the future! Here are some blocks I found. These often have full, dated postmarks, which can help in identifying which issue or printing the stamps belong to. #philately
- Wishing a Merry Christmas to all friends and followers here! (These angelic stamps are from Great Britain’s 1998 #Christmas set) #philately
- Great Britain's Machin definitives must count among the world's most iconic #stamps. In use for 50+ years in rainbow colours, most were monochrome. But a few early ones were bicoloured, including these old favourites - the pre-decimal 1967 1/9d and its successor, the decimal 1971 9p #philately
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- Great #Britain Queen Elizabeth II used #Machin #stamps: starting to sort a big shoeboxful, accumulated over 50 years from family mail. I realised too late that I should have kept a sampling of single uses on cover, but at least I have many examples on piece with clear dated cancels… #philately
- British #stamps issued in 1990 to commemorate the #Queen Mother’s 90th birthday, waggishly used on a parcel cancelled Baile Átha Cliath (that is, #Dublin in the Republic of #Ireland). Her Majesty is wearing a suitably coloured outfit…😁 #philately
- #France, 2006: centenary of the rehabilitation of Alfred #Dreyfus (1859-1935), a Jewish army officer wrongly accused of spying and later exonerated and honored. Dreyfus was a keen #philatelist, his collection staying in family hands until sold c. 70 years after his death aguttes.com/en/lot/114686/…?
- #Germany #Deutschland: time for stamps! Striking ‘socked-on-the-nose’ first day cancels on the 1992 semi-postal welfare set depicting antique #clocks:
- #Romania, Feb 1875: letter ex Giurgiu to Ottoman Constantinople. The 40 bani franking (25b + 15b 'Paris' stamps) paid 1st-step letter rate; the red manuscript '10' signified 10 kreuzer/soldi (25b) benefit to the Austrian Post Office, which transmitted the letter. Austrian PO arrival mark on reverse.
- Great to see that philately is thriving in China!
- #Romania, 1873: two covers from the same Brǎila-Genova correspondence, each franked 50b in 'Paris' stamps to pay the 1st-step letter rate, with different Brǎila cancels. The manuscript '15' on each letter signifies 15 kr (37.5 bani) 'external benefit' (for Austria and Italy).
- To mark the reopening of Notre Dame in #Paris following the devastating fire of 2019, here's the first-ever stamp depicting the cathedral, issued in 1947. It's my favourite though over the years there've been quite a few others. See linns.com/news/us-stamps… #philately #philatélie #stamps #timbres
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