Newfoundland Stamps #127 To #144 (1920-S)

Here is the 13th page of my collection of Newfies.

Not a whole lot remarkable about this year; lots of topics reflecting the post war era. Nice stamps, but not quite the Pizzang of the earlier classics.

Still the 127-128-129-130 are interesting ones with the overprint were called the Provisionals from 1920.

Basically, before the 131 to 144 were created in 1923, there was a shortage due to issues with England and the printer. Thus they took some high value stamps from 1897 (The Cabot issues) and basically re-purposed them with lower values of 2 and 3 cents.
The first one #128 was not satisfactory because the bar did not cover the "15" at the bottom--so they reissued it as the 129.

There are forgeries here, so beware.

Even then, the stamp supply dwindled and from Sept 4, 1920 to Oct 4, 1920, the reserved this Provisionals for foreign use and in Newfoundland the clerks took money and just used a "Postage Paid" rubber cachet cancel (red or green ink) (I have a few of these somewhat unusual covers).

Then in 1924 the new stamps arrived (smaller size than the Caribous which were criticized for being too big).

Keep em coming Tommy ! Great stamps and I love the 138. The color variant between 139 and 139b is so discreet that I cant even see it !

Practically speaking very few people (myself included) could tell the difference between Dark Violet (#139) and Purple (#139b). I rely upon an established auction house for the 139b plus with multiple copies under good light. But still. The catalog value is $6 vs $7 so not a big deal, but for higher values, I usually get a certificate to rest easy.

Interestingly, the Lighthouse pages that I use for Newfoundland came with preset places and include the major color or perf variants. For these stamps (#131-144), there was only one color variant (the 139).

Last (but not least), there is a trick to telling the colors apart : the perf of the 139 is 14 x 14. The Unitrade Catalog is sort of vague on this; but the History of Newfoundland by Boggs is clear on the evidence from their research.

Here is a closeup of #138

Thank you

Great tommy, the pictorial issues (131-140) are among my favorites.