Kept Looking - Switzerland

Not the best example, but I had this in my "France - unknown" section for the longest time. Did a quick google search, and found that it was Switzerland, year 1900. I never noticed the white cross on the shield. Lesson learned - don't stop searching till you find it.

Decent catalog value premium on the stamp, too!

Now if you had the re-engraved version with the "25" line-shaded numerals instead of solid...

[Edit: corrected a mis-type "line-shaded" instead of "outlined".]

Yes, I saw that reference. Anyone have a copy to show the difference? I'm sure it is quite obvious, but would love to see one.

This is an image of the Re-engraved issue :



Image from a Harmers Auction. Maybe someone who knows can point out the differences ?

Edit: I see the hair is solid on the re-engraved issue.

Drew

and a block of 4 from another auction :

I agree, that if you have the 2 stamps side-by-side, the hair is a quick way to tell. However, note that the hair is actually NOT solid. The hair in the Harmer's single example is overinked. In reality, there are still some "white streaks", but nowhere as many as in the original. Here is a more typical example of the re-engraved:



I think the reason Scott uses the numerals as the test is because the original really is solid, whereas in the re-engraved you make out some lines of shading; so a comparison copy is not required. Of course, maybe I have misinterpreted Scott's footnote?

I should have the original and re-engraved versions of the 5c stamp. I'll fish them out later today and try to post a scan of them side-by-side.

I'm not sure those are re-engraved or the resolution is not high enough to see. I read the values are lined rather than solid and the background shading is cleaner in the re-engraved issue.

The two images I posted up are from auctions listing them as re-engraved with certificates so I would assume they are. Maybe a enlarged image of the values will help tell the difference.

Thanks khj - will be interesting to see them side by side.

Using Scott catalog numbers, here are Switzerland #98(left, original) and #101(right, re-engraved):



You might be able to click on the picture to enlarge. You should roughly notice the horizontal background lines change from slightly irregular spacing to very regular spacing; number "5" changes from solid to collinear lines matching the shape of the number; large white streaks in hair changes to much fuller hair with very fine white streaks as well as much more neck shading.

A close-up of the horizontal background lines:


A close-up of the numerals:


A close-up of hair and neck lines.

Switzerland #98-100 (originals). Sorry, I don't have a full set of the re-engraved issues.

Superb Images! That definitely clears things up - I don't collect these but will keep it in mind when looking at dealer tables. Would you mind if I used the enlarged images on the stamp wiki ?

Thanks to everyone for the excellent research. It appears the best test is an extreme close up of the numeral. Very apparent from the example shown. The background spacing is also quite telling, as long as you have a reference sample. The potential for over inking in the hair appears the most difficult to validate.

Yet again, a question asked and answered. Thanks.

Feel free to use it. My scanner is old and I didn't adjust the brightness/contrast correctly to compensate. The "greenish" hue in the paper is there, but actually not so green.

Keep in mind that the 5c re-engraved actually has a LOWER catalog value than the original. The 10c re-engraved has a moderate premium and the 25c re-engraved has a major premium. That explains why I've got the 5c re-engraved but none of the other re-engraved values.

Re-examining the Harmer's single, maybe not necessarily overinked, but possibly just a case of a jpg that got re-saved too many times and lost some finer details?

I'd say another clue at to it's country of origin is the cancel - Basel
But I guess, not knowing it was Swiss, the cancel isn't clear enough that it would have jumped out.
Nice stamp!

Great comparison, k.

This is why we were gently pestering you all that time to find that darn scanner cord.