Gemany 1921 30-PF - Does Anyone Know What Watermark This Is?

This is a German stamp from 1921:



The watermark does not appear to be the regular lozenges (Rauten):



Instead, we see a kind of rosette. The one you can see most clearly is on the left side of the stamp, in the middle. I've processed an image of this area in order to emphasise the distinctive contours of this 'rosette':



Does anyone know what watermark this is?

All assistance greatly appreciated!

Hello again Jimjam. This stamp was issued twice, once with the lozenges watermark (1921) and later (1922) with a mesh (Waffeln) watermark (Mi 162 and 181). With some of the stamps from this series it can be very difficult to identify the watermark. I remember sorting stamps of these sets into three piles: 'Wz1' (lozenges), 'Wz2' (mesh) and 'can't tell.' Your stamp I'd put into the 'can't tell' pile. Imagine the frustration of trying to identify the watermark on a stamp like this heavily cancelled - almost impossible; yet for this stamp Wz1 is valued at DM 3 used and Wz2 DM 1000 used (1997 prices). Mint hinged their values are: Wz1 DM 0.20 and Wz2 DM 2.

peterthio, thanks for the info! In this case, the wmk looks more like a lozenge than it does mesh, but it also looks a bit like the very rare Vierpass (or Krezubluete) wmk. I can't see enough of the wmk to deduce the pattern - but I will say that this is hardly ever the case with lozenge-watermarked paper. I'd be very surprised if this turned out to be the Rauten.

I seem to remember finding the same thing.




I could only find the 1 1/4 mark Germania in this watermark. It would be lovely if this was another example.

hi jimjamtwo

Though I'm by no means an expert. I have looked at many watermarks on german stamps in the last little while. This one does look like a "lozenge" to me.

Dianne