Does The Overprint Say Heil Or Hell?

Just found that stamp in one of my stockbooks.

Does it say heil or hell? It looks like hell.....
Anybody has a stamp like this? Thanks.

"Heil"

Looks to me more like 'Hell' than 'Heil.'

Either some ink seems to have run between the dot and the rest of the 'i' or the dark area is an illusion created by the darker lines in that area on the background stamp.

I've come up against this problem time and time again with postmarks, i.e., I can't read the postmark clearly because the appearance of a letter or number is affected by the appearance of the background stamp.

I think it's just some smudging or smearing of the ink, as jimjam suggests. But surprisingly appropriate, no?

No.

It appears to be "Hell" the l's or il look to simular to be an ink smear.

Thanks everybody for your comments. It does look more like hell then heil but then again I do not think "they" would have stamped it hell.
After all it was in 1938. I put them in my special album.

fifia - It looks very much like a "Heil Hitler" Sudeten "Liberation" provisional cancel to me. See: http://sudeten.bizland.com/sudetenland9.htm for an explanation and for more examples. - nethryk

nethryk,

thanks for the link. Interesting stuff.