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Acquired Small Austria Hoard.....

 
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Posted 06/13/2012   10:09 am  Show Profile Bookmark this topic Add milehigh to your friends list Get a Link to this Message
Hi, All, I have been an observer of this forum for quite some time, but just recently joined, so this is my first post.
Anyway, I just acquired a 1/4 pound WW packet from my local dealer and found that it contained a small hoard of Austria 1860-1880 Franz Josef and Coat of Arms stamps. So far I have pulled out over 500 stamps covering almost all denominatons. These include regular postage, postal card cuts, stationary cuts, as well as dozens of examples each of Newspaper stamps (Scott P8 and P9). and several dozen Newspaper Tax Stamps Scott PR1.
Needless to say, I am having great difficulty in identifying the several varieties of these stamps (especially the notorious Franz Josef Coarse/Fine print varieties. Even with so many specimens to work with I have found that virtually no two stamps are the same as far as identifying features that distinguish the 'Coarse and Fine' prints. I did find some websites that had fairly detailed treatises on this, but many of the pieces in my hoard fall short on some of the criteria. I have been able to easily ID the varieties in the 5K red series (lower left corner arabesque and FJ ear varieties, but there is still the coarse/fine issue with some of these.
Aside from this, it has been a blast examining these interesting stamps. Many of them have clear bullseye cancels, and a few have PERFECT centering (i.e. the outer frames of the design do not even touch the perforations.) A couple of other things I have noticed...there are many color variations within each denomination, and none of the readable date cancels of this particular lot go past 1870. If there is anyone here on the forum who is an expert on these stamps, some comments would be welcomed!

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Valued Member
39 Posts
Posted 06/13/2012   10:23 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add milehigh to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Forgot to mentionn..

The packet that these stamps came in was a real gold mine for $15.95 ! Besides the Austria stamps, I found several other interesting pieces - several Queensland, Australia stamps, a number of German 3rd Reich propaganda semi-postals, a Hawaii Queen Lililuokalani, a couple of Korea 1880-era stamps, a Great Britain penny red (common), several British Colonials from the Victoria / Edwardian eras, and several 19th Century South American issues which I haven't yet ID'd and processed into my collection.
One interesting find in this lot was a complete used, on paper set of the US 2009 "Simpsons" stamps. Even though I am not an avid fan of moern US 'stickums' I found this amusing, and have the set proudly displayed in my album!
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2361 Posts
Posted 06/13/2012   11:16 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add doug2222 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
A catalog that would help you immensely is the Michel Austria Specialized; since most of your stamps are old, an older edition would be just as useful, despite the prices being out of date.
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