Germany: Is This A Listed Variety?

As someone who is starting to specialise in German stamps, I recently took the plunge and invested in a Michel Germany catalogue. I got the 2004/5 edition on ebay for a very modest price indeed. I hope that very shortly I will be answering questions about German stamps here rather than asking them!

So, Australia Post willing, this is probably going to be my last call to Germany experts!

This is the November 1923 20 Miiliarden stamp. It was printed in brown on a pale green-blue background. However, I noticed the other day that I had a copy that was brown on blue-green. Here they are beside one another - making it clear that the two shades are very different:



Here is a larger scan of the green version:



I'm wondering if anyone knows whether this is a listed variety or perhaps, more excitingly, a case of a colour error.

My thanks to anyone who can be bothered looking this up for me!

BTW, a 1992 Michel catalogue is currently going for just $5 on ebay. The prices may not be up to date, but even an older edition is extremely useful as a means of identifying your German stamps. (What's more, given the date this catalogue should have all the DDR stamps in it.)

Let me know if you'd like to contact the seller, who's in the US, and I'll tell you who he is.

No help from Scott catalog. Scott lists the blue-green with no other colors.

Thanks for looking, Russ!

The INFLA website doesn't list any colour varieties for this stamp either:

http://philadb.com/?site=list&catid...d=484&id=707

Although this website is still in the development stage, the Inflation period coverage is fairly advanced and generally colour varieties are identified.

Extensive web searching turns up only two versions of this stamp - Mi 329 A (the regular version) and 329 B, which is a brighter version of the same colour.

Interesting variety Jimjam.

Here is my copy of the 20M along with the 50M. Yours appears similar to the colour of the 50M and may be a true error. It seems like a nice find.



Edit: I adjusted my scan, it was way too light.

BeeSee, it does seem like it could be a similar colour, but I think the 50 million is dark green and my 20 milliarden is more your average green. So I doubt that a simple mistake was made (i.e., that the value was printed on sheets intended for the 50 million).

I think this only adds to the mystery!

My scan is still not quite right, my green stamp is a little closer to your colour. I will re-scan alone when I get home.

There appear to be a variety of Michel catalogues out there. The Michel "Deutschland-spezial" has the most information, I think. I got a 94 edition fairly cheaply using the Abe books online site. My catalog lists it as #329A and 329B, with no shade varieties, but two different stamp sizes and lots of plate errors and touchups for the whole series. I thought my German was pretty good, but reading Michel is really tough!

PS That web site (Phila-DB) is really nice. Thanks for posting it. Much easier to read than the catalog, and in color

butterfly, I agree that reading a Michel catalogue can be quite a challenge - but I'm glad you were able to confirm for me what I established by web searching yesterday (that there are only two recognised varieties, #329 A and #329 B).

So my stamp would seem to be either a case of a freak printing error or the result of a chemical process, although I just don't think that that is likely here.

Glad you like Phila-DB - it's going to be a fantastic resource and in some respects it is already.

I rescanned, plus another green.

The left is very close to yours Jimjam. I think you have a colour error as the value was applied afterwards, like an overprint, if I remember correctly.

Those two look rather different themselves, don't they?

Did you scan them both yourself with the same scanner, BeeSee?

Yes same scanner. The right stamp is the serpentine roulette version and the paper is a bit whiter.

jimjamtoo, that link is very helpful. I had questions about the inflation overprints. Thanks, Jon