Berlin Germany

Are small Berlin Germany stamps worth keeping?

I'm not sure what you mean by 'small' but I'm assuming you mean defenitives and not commeratives.

I would have to say that any stamp has a place in a collection and definitives are as important to a collection as any commerative - especially if you are trying to compile a complete collection of a particular country or region.

I have MANY 'small' Berlin in my Berlin regular and semi-postal issues collection and I'm always looking for more!

I seem to remember a little blue rectangular stamp, horizontal, about have the size of a standard definitive, but can't find a photo in an album or catalog. It said BERLIN. Maybe it wasn't a postage stamp.

Modern_who, do you mean this one.....



Steve

That's the one I mean.

I Have a few of those myself. I think they are interesting. I haven't had a chance to reserch them yet.

Dianne

That's the one, Triggersmob.

What are these worth, I have 40+ in used.

SG AT136, 1948. According to the Stanley Gibbons web site they are valued at 20 pence each in used condition.

http://www.stanleygibbons.com/mc/se...&country=234

Steve

What are these worth, I have 40+ in used I want to sell.

Well, when you reach 50 posts you can consider selling them. In the meantime, this thread looks suspiciously like a setup.

Yes, I came out of lurking to post in this thread.

Hello laswabbie, I hope you see this. Maybe you can help since your specialty is Germany...

Triggersmob posted a copy of the stamp I had in mind but couldn't find a photo of in an album or catalog. And STAMPS has confirmed that it is the one. Triggersmob then came up with a Gibbons number, AT136, 1948. It's bugging me that I still can't find it listed in Scott or in a Scott or Minkus album.

Am I missing something, or isn't it Scott listed? It certainly appears to be postally used. I remember seeing quite a few of them when I used to soak mixtures as a kid.

Hi modern_who,

These stamps are listed after the German Official stamps in the Scott catalog. They are the Postal Tax Stamps RA1-RA6.

The West German officials enacted a tax called the "Notopfer Berlin" (Berlin Emergency Levy) to raise funds to pay for civilian reconstruction operations in post-War West Berlin. Nearly all internal mail in West Germany was required to have one of these 2 pfennig tax stamps on it in the period from Dec 1, 1948 to March 31, 1956.

There are three different watermarks used with these stamps and numerous types of perforations, many of which were applied by local post offices or private parties. All of the used perforated varieties are valued at either 0.20 or 0.30.

Thanks, t360. For some reason, neither of my catalogs show this. I have an old set of 1972's I keep nearby that take me about up to where my cut-off year is for collecting. Under Germany the stamps go from officials, O, to OL, P, S, then 1N, the occupation issues.

A few years ago I picked up the latest set on disk which was 2004. Under Germany, the listings do the same thing, with no RA in the sequence.

Have found the disks less convenient to use than printed catalogs but the search feature is great if you're looking for something specific, so I entered RA1 and came up empty again. Strange!

I just got back to this thread and now I understand what you meant by "small" stamps. Sorry I misunderstood. I just checked my new 2008 catalog and, as always, t360 is dead on target. They all come in under .30 for used.

RA3 is listed at 11.00/1.40 with a MNH issue coming in at 45.00.

I have a number of these in an envelope somewhere, but I've never really paid much attention to them other than to look them up years ago. The would make a nice little addition to a German collection though. I guess I need to pay some mind to them now that you've brought them to my attention!

Hello everyone.....


You might want to check your stamps for one issued July 1, 1949 as an imperf with a red overprint (overprint 18.7 mm wide)...."Wohnugsbau abgabe"....Scott #8NRA1 mint $150.00...MNH $450.00...used $350.00

These were issued from July to December as a postal tax on most categories of mail with the proceeds going to the Social Housing Program (Socialen Wohnugsbau) which provided interest-free loans for housing construction and renovation intended to provide housing for economically disavantaged families.

From Scott Cat. 2008.

Interesting that topic was just a year ago...probably just before I registered on SCF !!