Germany Hindenburg Question

There seems to be an unwritten law in my house that whenever I paw through an old pile of stamps, I am destined to find at least one aging German, usually Hindenburg - the one shown is from a box of kiloware I bought a few years ago. But, here's my question: what were the perfs for the 3 different versions of these stamps, my 2006 Scott only mentions that the 1934 version is perf 14, but neglects to mention what the two earlier ones were. This one appears to be perf 14, which probably indicates that it's the low value 1934, but I don't know if the perf alone is enough to determine that. Help appreciated!

MBriggy,

In Scott, when information like perfs and wmks is not included, it means that the information is unchanged from the listing above.

So you have to scan back through the listings to find the last time the perfs are mentioned.

I don't have a catalog handy so I can't point you to an example.

That's kind of what I thought. The two earlier versions of the stamp have no perf numbers noted, so going back one issue earlier, I come to the earlier Hindenburg style with a perf of 14. Aaarrggh! The only difference listed in Scott between the 1932, 1933, and 1934 Hindenburg side faces are the watermarks, and I was trying to avoid taking this thing off piece. I guess for now, I'll leave it alone and ponder a bit. According to my 2006 Scott, the '32 version has the network watermark and a CV of about $9, the '33 has no watermark and a CV of about $22, and the '34 has the Swastikas wmk and a CV of a whopping .20.

MBriggy
This is definitely not from the first (1932) issue, as the 15pf was in carmine for that set, and changed to deep reddish purple for the later two sets. If you do get it off paper, it could be the 1933 mesh watermark in which case it is £28 catalogue value, or 1934 swastikas, with minimal value.
Hope this helps.
DavidR

Thanks, David, that does at least narrow it down a bit. I don't mind soaking it off the rather thick paper it's on, though I've always heard it's best to leave them intact on paper due to the issue of forgeries. I guess, though, with a scan of the original on paper, I can at least show how it was when it arrived here. Looks like a soaking is in order for this one!

The perfs on all three were the same (14:14 1/4). Based on the color, it's not the first printing. I'd guess third simply based on the rarity of the second, but you'd need to see the watermark to know for sure since the second and third colors are very similar (dark brown carmine versus dark- to black-red lilac).

To see photos of all three and try to distinguish the colors, here's a link to the third set on my site. Links to the first two sets are on the page.

Based on the short period of time the network watermark was in use and your cancel being 1938, I doubt it is the earlier one.

I'm betting on it being the cheapy one as well, but I'll add it to the pile to be soaked so I can find out for sure. The responses here have really helped point out just how poor the Scott catalog is for this material as it only shows both the second and the third versions as being 'maroon'. I have a set of the third series and this one does appear a bit lighter in color, which is what got me started wondering about it in the first place.

-Mary