Bermuda Watermarks

Hello, can anyone tell me how to find out what watermark 1 and 2 look like for Bermuda stamps...

Here are the images of the watermarks straight out of the Scott catalogue. This is what they look like when viewing the back of the stamp.

Type 1 is commonly known as Crown over CC, and Type 2 Crown over CA.

Thank you very much!

What is a watermark? I have been also seeing that alot.
Sorry if I highjack your thread.

Watermarks are security features imprinted into paper during the manufacturing process.

They can be seen by holding stamps up to the light or an illuminated light source, and viewing them from the back.

Some stamps are issued with watermarks, others without watermarks. If a stamp has a reversed, inverted or sideways watermark, it can affect its value considerably. If the watermark dandy roll (used to impress the watermark imprint into the damp paper during manufacture) is damaged, then varieties such as that below arise - Missing A in watermark. Look closely at the top right selvedge on the example below, there is a C but no adjoining A in the watermark. This variety turns what would otherwise be a £1.75 stamp into a £1200 stamp.



I guess that the message is that understanding watermarks is crucial when seeking to correctly identify stamps.

This may assist :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermark

Oh, thats good to know.

...But honestly, I just spent a couple minutes looking at
the stamps, cant' seem find the difference, now im just dizzy.

Thank you Rod :D ill go read that.

The basic understanding of a watermark, is a design impressed
on the paper pulp in a semi wet state, by the use of a
cylindrical cage (dandy roller) with projecting designs, that, in doing so,
leave areas of the paper (the design) with a deeper density
of paper that is generally not visible to the naked eye, until
immersed in water.

The mark is generally soldered onto the cage before paper
production, to suit the purchaser of that particular
production lot.
I first became aware of them when I was a kid, seeing designs
visible in aerogrammes, and quality note paper
(Basildon Bond etc)

It's fairly hard to come across pictures of dandy rollers,
there is a description here that makes good reading

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb...Heinecke.htm

So they can be used to determine the authenticity of a certain
stamp known to have a certain watermark?

Indeed, watermarks AFAIK are not forgeable,
A fuzzy recall has the famous stamp forger SPERATI
completely washing the image from a stamp
(to get the watermarked perforated paper) then forging the stamp
on the blank, may have been the Australian 1 pound Kangaroo and map.

Others here may be more experienced on that, and expand.

I am reasonably sure too, reading of a Japanese forger that spliced
a watermark to one of his creations.
That in itself is an exceptional skill.

Plateflaw's example, caused me to recall the "wrong crown" wmk,
which illustrates the soldering process of the dandy roll.

I am not privy to how the roll was manufactured, but one would assume a soldered crown fell off the dandy roll, was noticed,
then a new crown re soldered, but alas! the wrong one.

Hint: Catalogues like Stanley Gibbons have lots of juicy information in their preambles to their specialised catalogues.
So worth purchasing at your local stamp auctions.

Here is their description:

That is correct. In the other thread on the Sardinian stamp, he also forged the inverted embossed centers by taking a real stamp, bleaching all the ink off, then reprinting the frame upside-down.

Thanks for that confirmation khj,

(On your post number 1847, the anniv of your first stamp :)