Where Is The Bird? Guatemala C61A

I have just acquired this Guatemala Scott C61a with the missing quetzal. The are 6 or 7 known and all the ones found are used.

Great fotofila.

That must be a welcome addition to your collection.

Chimo

Bujutsu

I never really paid attention to that listing in Scott. I see the variety is only shown for this value.

Do you know the story or theory behind it? Is there thought to be one sheet?

According to the Guatemala handbook Volume 2, this stamp is probably the scarcest of all Guatemala errors. Kessler bought all 5 that were found by a New York dealer who bought stamps from the bank mails. Kessler was a famous airmail dealer, together with Rodrigo van de Goltz, a Guatemala airmail specialist, were able to track down 6 or 7 copies and the unused example does not exist. This is not the only value that lacks the quetzal. Scott lists C69a Quetzal Omitted in MINT and USED conditions.
Hope this will help you in better-understanding this interesting stamp.

Fotofila, great stamp! But for us folks that do not know what a quetzal looks like, is there a way you can scan a normal stamp? I would love to see the stamp as it is supposed to look!

Peter

Good point on C69a...it is one of the larger-sized examples, but still in the same series.

Here is the overprint on the 5c, for those who are wondering:




(Grabbed a scan in the interest of a quick response.)

The quetzals were overprinted onto the basic stamps in dark green color. Perhaps that was the reason that the examiner failed to discover this error during inspection, as the 25c basic stamp is also in deep green. You can see the contrast on other values. The fourth one is an used example of the normal stamp.

Great Find ! Congrats jealous here