Japan, Scott 129, How Many Printings

Need help from a reference source as to how many different printings of this stamp -----1914-1925 Scott 129 ----wmk141{jaggered lines}---old die .

I'm several hours away from my specialized Japanese catalog, but, if no one else answers in the meantime, I'll reply then.

Ok, I now have the catalog with me.

Can you round out that question for me a little bit? Are you asking about what kinds of color, paper and perforation variations you might expect to encounter with that stamp?

I ask because this is a pretty complicated area within the Japan Specialized catalog. To give you an idea, the listings of variations, just on the old-die set, Sc 127-145 (they do not include the high value 5- and 10-yen stamps as part of this set, which are listed elsewhere), run 12 pages. And that's just the old die (19 x 22.5 mm)! The whole Tazawa series (Sc 115-145a) runs 26 pages.

My recommendation is just to save everything, and sort it by perf differences and paper type, both paper thickness and degree of "granite-ness", if you can. (Even though they're all granite paper, according to the Specialized, there are 12 different types of paper, if I'm reading the Japanese correctly.)

So, as I'm sure you knew already, it's reasonable to encounter a lot of variation in this set.

I hope to gain more expertise in this area, but I think it'll have to wait to be a retirement project for me.

Philatarium said ---"my recommendation is just to save everything" that is not possible as a worldwide collector,I try to spend a week or so on any one country and add a few more pages to my Japan collection.I have no problem sorting them to watermarks,perforations and die size as in this case but to get into the varities of granite paper is just too much .
Can you ,post the name and approximately cost of the catalog for others ,I've seperated this stamp into four colors and maybe more printings exist but I need to wrap up this issue to move on to something else.....thanks for your help.

By all means, stay with that level of organization -- it'll be more detailed than most other collectors.

The catalog is part of a 3-volume set, covering all Japan including occupation issues. Your stamp is in volume 1, and is here:

http://www.yushu.co.jp/shop/g/g8192

Here are the other 2 volumes:

http://www.yushu.co.jp/shop/g/g8191
http://www.yushu.co.jp/shop/g/g8292

I have never been able to successfully order directly from the publisher, so I use a specialized Japanese book importer. The regular exchange rate with Japan is already awful, and then they add their fees into that rate, making it even more unfavorable.

So, using their fee structure, I would estimate volumes 1 and 2 to cost approx $60 each, and volume 3 to cost about $47.

However, the big warning is that the catalog is virtually all in Japanese, with very, very little English (or anything romanized). They've changed some formatting to make it a ^little^ easier to use than it used to be, but I think it's still very hard to use for someone with no Japanese reading skills, and it's very easy to make a mistake with it. I have maybe something like a low-intermediate reading skill, and it's still taken a long time to begin to get comfortable with it.

And when you need to rid of things, I'd be happy to take your discards off your hands to add to my when-I-retire sorting pile.

Great incentive for early retirement!

I like to set the bar high!

Thanks for the additional information,the catalog and information is over my head both in cost and detail.But some other collector may go in that direction with you .I hope to have a decent worldwide collection,so no one area will take all my efforts.

wow.. You are into a deep stuff here.
First of all, take a careful look at the paper. Your 1 and half Sen stamps have 2 kinds of paper material. If you see colored fiber, it is a fiber paper, if you see just completely white, then it is a white paper. Each paper material has 3 variations, old Taisho, new Taisho and Showa, which makes it a total of 6 (2 kinds of paper x 3) basic variations.
Old Taisho and New Taisho can be recognize according to dimention:
Old Taisho fiber 19x22.5mm
New Taisho fiber plane print 18.5x22mm
New Taisho fiber rotary print 18.5x22.5mm
To differentiate Taisho (old and new) and Showa, look at the watermarks. I don't have Scott but I would think there is a picture of watermarks. My Michel does.
Taisho white can be identify according to perforations:
New Taisho white: perforation single line 12 or 12x12.5 or 13x12.5, if not, it means it is an old Taisho.
You also have booklet pane but you can easily recognize it because some side will be umperforated.

I'm talking strictly about your 1 and half Sen stamp. If it is other Tazawa stamp, what I have wrote does not apply.

Thanks ---PRAHANOAKI,your information was helpful to the information that PHILATARIUM had posted .....with your both informatiom I'll make up my pages .
For those not fimilar with this subject ,here is a sample of the different papers ,notice the color fibers in the right stamp .