Mutawakelite Kingdom Of Yemen

Nigel,
I am a reasonable novice with Michel,
I would suggest "Block" means a Souvenir Sheet,
Not a sheet of stamps

Pricing is a bit of a hit and miss with a complete sheet etc.
CTO is not mentioned, unless "used column" suffices.

Still confused as to the Letterpress Opt, and what that actually read.
I have a gut feeling, it's the marginal Inscrip.
If so, the perfectionist will need to collect 4 sheets + 1 sheet CTO
Yikes!

PS Bib. Michel 2013, generosity of PostmasterGS

Hi Rod,


I agree, rather like SG's treatement of sheetlets, small sheets etc. which sometimes get noted or even priced in footnotes.


I guess "used" would have to suffice, with a premium for commercially used if that exists which seems unlikely for these late issues.


I think this is a reference to the stamp overprint.

After all, the individual stamps are listed not the sheet.


Or even 4 mint and 4 CTO sheets! Yikes indeed.

Weighing in a little late to the discussion, thanks to the time difference here on the US West Coast, where it's just mid-morning.

My working hypothesis is still that the unoverprinted stamps are 693-707, and that the ones with the 'Christmas 1970' overprint on the stamps themselves (as opposed to in the margins) are 1099-1128.

I would posit that the image in Michel for the 693-707 is an inadvertent error.

Although Michel is usually meticulous about descriptions, it has seemed to me since I got my hands on the 2013 volumes that, at least in some cases, the new material added was rushed, with very minimal descriptions, few illustrations, etc.

So, under ordinary circumstances, I would expect to see a footnote under the listing for 678-707 that cross-references the overprints at 1099-1128.

Also, under ordinary circumstances, in the listing for 1099-1128, I would expect that they would specifically name the overprint "Christmas 1970".

Both of those errors suggest to me that this volume update was rushed.

In addition, look at the descriptions for the issues. The earlier stamps do not reference Christmas, while the overprinted ones specifically mention it.

So, for me, I'd use the 1099-1128 numbers for the Christmas overprinted ones, but with an asterisk or question mark and a little notation about the ambiguity, thanks to the illustration in Michel.

- - - - -

I can confirm that, at least for the Trucial States catalog, "A" designates perforated and "B" designates imperforated, when both are options.

And also can confirm that "Block" is for souvenir sheets (true in all Michel catalogs I'm familiar with).

Finally, I think, but it's just an assumption, that the used prices for Trucial States during this "wallpaper" era are for CTO, since postally used are quite scarce, and since used prices in the catalog are virtually always equal to or lower than the unused prices. (Again, for Trucial States countries, for this time period.)

All respectfully submitted as my own working hypotheses, and all happily subject to revision or correction!

- - - - -

(I keep hoping to find a group of specialists somewhere online in the world who really understand this material, but have yet to find them yet. About 10-20 years ago, I had a wisp of a trail to a couple of people who might have been that resource, but it appears they've disappeared, moved on, or gone radio silent.)

(One other thing I've learned from this discussion is that the English-language version is *very* handy. ("No duh!") Someone along the way had told me that the German version was a little more complete and authoritative, and so I've struggled with the German one (with an eye to getting more comfortable with philatelic German) rather than using the English one as at least the initial resource. Thanks for that!)

It would be interesting to get a dictionary of Michel philatelic German. I have looked up words using google.

I've got a A5 16-page booklet called:

The Michel Stamp Catalogue
An Introduction for English-speaking readers

This gives a useful introduction to the catalogue and some of its conventions, layout etc. with eight pages of translations for colours, country names and philatelic terms, symbols and abbreviations.

Here:
http://www.briefmarken.de/images/PD...Englisch.pdf

Thanks Germania! That's the same one that I have.

That booklet is a helpful start, but I found it far from complete in trying to make my way through the catalog listings. (Not even the descriptions, which I don't expect it to do, but even with some of stamp-related terms.)

I ended up making my own notes, and relying on Google Translate (which has definitely gotten better with time).

There is also this resource, which I often forget about, and then am glad to find again:

https://www.austrianphilately.com/german.htm

There is also a publication I picked up somewhere along the way, which unfortunately got stuck in storage during my last move and has not yet seen the light of day. If I'm at all recalling correctly, it was from the German (Germany?) Philatelic Society, and was a rather extensive philatelic dictionary. It will be a treat to find it again and see how it holds up to today's resources.

Philaterium, you are correct. The Germany Philatelic Society has a dictionary for $20.
https://store.germanyphilatelicsoci...ublications/

Germania, thanks very much for that, and for providing that link! Much appreciated!

Thanks. I found the book.