ID Help For A Bohemia And Moravia Item

Hi - I'm new to this forum. It looks great ... been browsing it for a few months now and enjoy it immensely! I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on a block I got in a large WW lot a few years ago. I know it from Bohemia and Moravia #B18. Is it unusual to have the two blank spots on the sheet? Thanks for any help!

Hi canyoneer, and welcome to the forum! That is quite an unusual item, at least I have never seen anything like it.
Maybe if you change the title of the thread and include "Deutsches Reich" you may get more replies. I have a feeling these stamps belong under Germany, since they are occupation stamps?

Peter

They are a type of gutter in the sheet.

This is the normal position of the sheet. 112 - 12, thus there will be 100 stamps per sheet, 16 positon per row. In Michel Spezial katalog 'Anordnung IV' (under Böhmen you Maehren, page 828).

Thank you all very much for taking a look. I'll have to get my hands on the Michel catalog ... wonder if APS library has this. Just wondering, if this is a normal plating arrangement, what is the practical reason for having the blanks? Seems like it would be easier to have "full" sheets of stamps.

my guess for the blank spaces on the sheet would be for accounting reasons. They left some spots blank because it made the total value easier to count in rounded out totals for a full sheet .Using a example like the value of a full sheet as $5.00 or 5 marks instead of counting each sheet as lets say 5 marks and 36 pefinngs per sheet .

Because of some peculiar characteristics of the Stickney printing press that was used for B&M stamps, their sheet layouts are a little unusual. The larger stamps (~28x34mm), including this one, were printed in one of four layouts. This stamp (Michel 126) was printed using the most common of the four large-format layouts. I couldn't find a photo of a 126 sheet, but here's a 140 showing the same layout.



It's 100 stamps with 12 blank fields. Your block is from the bottom right of the sheet.

Thanks for your help PostmasterGS. That photo really helps - very interesting!!