Austrian ID?

A friend of mine knows that here lately I've been working with some stamps from Austria. He emailed this picture to me and was wondering if I could help him identify these four:




Here were my thoughts:

#1 - Austrian Offices Abroad, Offices of the Turkish Empire. Either Scott 4 or 7F. With the pen markings it is difficult to see if the beard is coarse or fine.

#2 - Looks like an imperforate of Scott 112. The Scott catalog mentioned that all of that 1908-1913 series exists as imperforate.

#3 - Appears to be an Austrian Newspaper stamp. That was as far as I could go.

#4 - Not a clue on this one.....

Of course, once I hit the wall on the ID I immediately thought of you all and thought I would see if anyone could go a little deeper on the ID's. Any help would be appreciated.

#1 -- looks like revenue usage not postal usage, too small to determine coarse/fine print type. However, the coarse print 10 soldi was only issued perf 9.5. So if is any other perforation, then it must be #7F. If it is perf 9.5, it can still be either #4 or #7F.

The remaining 3 will not be Scott listed.

#2 -- cut square, not the imperforate stamp
#3 -- revenue stamp
#4 -- probably revenue stamp (I don't collect revenues and am unfamiliar with this one)

khj - thanks for the info on the first one. You mentioned that on #2 it was a cut square. How is that different from an imperforate stamp?

A cut square is a preprinted stamp cut from a piece of postal stationery. Think of a post card or envelope. Scott lists U.S. examples, but generally speaking, the major catalogues don't list postal stationery items.

An imperf stamp is still a stamp, and will be listed in the major catalogues.

Cut square, see "mutilated stationery" here for further reading...
https://goscf.com/t/19277

Number 3 is a straight receipts revenue
Forbin #317 1893
CV 3c in 1915

Stempel Marke pour acquit de tous droits.



Number 4 I cannot find anywhere
can we have a better scan by itself please?

I still get a chuckle every time I read that!

k

I guess my confusion then comes from the statement in the Scott catalog: "All values exist imperforate". How would you know by looking at the stamp if it were cut from postal stationary or not? The margin differences??

Design, color, value, paper characteristics, margins, writing on the back. Lots of different possible ways to tell the difference, and yes, sometimes it can still be hard to tell.

A lot of time by feel.

Thin brown paper generally Newspaper wrapper
thicker paper , envelope
thicker still, postcard.

Can we have a close up number 4 please?

Your 3 Heller, looks like a newspaper wrapper,
it should feel thin and flimsy.

Here is one (precancelled)
http://www.precancels.org/foreign/a...ianwraps.htm

rod - this scan was the only one that was sent to me. I can try to see if he can send me a better image of just number 4. And thanks everyone for the detailed information.

There wasn't a lot of resolution there to play with, but here is a bigger view to tide us over 'til a new scan arrives.

Hmm, that background rectangle appears to have faded
giving a strange look to the label.
I was racking my brains for countries using
the double headed eagle
Russia
Albania
Hungary
Austria
Prussia
any other suggestions? (tied with the Kroner)?
or can we definitely say it is Austria?
Nothing of Austria in Byrom
Nothing similar in Forbin.

The design looks wonky to me
the lower frame design is not even both sides
suggesting there was a fitted image in the centre that
has faded or not printed.

I was thinking Austria, because of its general similarities to other Austrian revenues, and I was seeing (imagining?) the W I E at the bottom of the cancel, which would fit WIEN just about perfectly.

Here is another larger image of number 4. I guess he also ran into another one he couldn't identify. He scanned that one as well and included it. I guess I'll call that one number 5.

The new one purports to be Thurn and Taxis, Southern District. I have a list of forgery spotting features that I'll dig out. (Forgeries are common.) I think I also have a list of numeral cancels for T&T.


[edit: My numeral list is just simple text, without any title or explanation, so I can't rule out a difference between northern and southern district numerals...anyway, my list shows 218 as "(Bad) Homburg vor der Höhe" and 248 as "Vacha". In person, it may be more obvious which this is. For what its worth.]