DDR Official Stamps Clarification

Hi Gang,

Can someone clarify something for me? In the scans below the first pair are representative of what the Scott's catalog shows as type O1. I think these represent O18 to O25.
The second scan I believe is typical for O1 to O17. As for the third, Not sure which is what. They point in opposite directions, but have the same background. And somewhere along the line when I re-sized to make them below 100K, they got out of scale.


Dave.

Hi Dave,
You have the backgrounds correct. O1-O17 have small dots in the background. O18-O27 have vertical lines.
For the last two, you need to look at the type of paper. Most likely the stamp on the right is granite paper. Note the small flecks:




That would make it an O40. (It can be perf 13 x 12.5 or perf 14- two variations.)

There are also reprints of these issues that need very detailed scans to distinguish. (You have to count the pixels on the top circle. LOL)

Hope that helps!

Dan

Oh,

Is that how you tell the granite ones? Cool

I'm sorting out the watermarks still as well.

Thanks

Dave.

If you really want to get picky with these stamps, the size of the letters in the watermark differ (6mm vs. 5mm) and the direction of the watermark (horizontal or vertical) can make a difference too.

There are also a lot of plate errors and reprints. The Michel-Deutschland-Spezial Catalog gives this series 7 pages.

Have fun!
Dan