Help With Variations On Bavaria Stamps

Hello

I am trying to finally finish organizing my Bavaria Stamps

As I look through Michel, I note that some of the stamps have a multitude of variations. As my German is limited to Google Translate, would really like some help in understanding Michel and classifying my variations.

Let's start with Michel #177 / Scott #237

First of all, I note that Michel lists two types.

Type I - wide separation between the surcharges (5.8-6.8mm), and
Type II - narrow separation between the surcharge (3.5-5mm)

Here are my type I's


and, here are my type II's - I also notice a gap in the upper right "2"


I also note that there are sub-variations in paper varieties and variations in overprints. This is where my translations begin to breakdown.

Any help would be appreciated.

For both Types of MiNr 177:

x a -- gray-white paper (this one's rare)
x b -- matte red-white paper (so is this one)
y -- white to matte yellowish-white paper (the common variety)

If you're in the Specialized catalog, the next listing is for "Zwischenstegpaare (senkrecht)", or vertical gutter pairs. These are always noted in Michel as "ZS".

Next is "Unterrandstücke mit anhängendem bedruckten Bogenrandfeld und Bogenunterrand", or stamp with lower margin piece. Margin pieces are noted in Michel with "L" (short for "Leerfeld", meaning blank field).

Next is "Eckrandstücke mit Plattennummern (Pl.-Nr.)", meaning corner with plate number.

Finally, Michel lists "Aufdruck-Abarten", or overprint varieties.

These are as follows:

177 y K -- inverted overprint (K always notes an invert in Michel -- it's short for Kopfstehend, the German word for inverted).
177 y DD -- double overprint (DD always denotes double in Michel)
177 y III -- "spear" to right of upper left "20"
177 y IV -- half of overprint is vertically displaced
177 y V -- four quadrants of overprint are all horizontally and vertically displaced
177 y VI -- half of overprint is horizontally displaced
177 y X I -- "0" at upper left is open
177 y X II -- split in "2" at lower right
177 y X III -- split in "2" at upper left

Thank you, GS, that was very helpful. Would you happen to know what a split 2 looks like (even though mine is in the upper right which is not listed)?

DC,

Unfortunately, I don't. I do' collect German States, and I wasn't able to find one in searching the Internet. I suspect yours is either an unlisted variety (Michel doesn't catalog all known overprint faults of most issues -- there's specialized literature for that) or a simple case of under-inking in a single run, not a repeated fault that would be cataloged.

For future reference, however, here are visuals to demonstrate some of the varieties listed above:


Inverted overprint


Vertical gutter pair

With regard to errors IV, V, and VI, it helps to understand the printing process. The overprints were applied in 5x5 blocks. As the overprints on the stamps are 2x2 per stamp, this means certain stamps in the pane had overprints applied in 2 to 4 steps. As the alignment between steps wasn't always perfect, certain rows ended up with horizontally misaligned values, certain columns with vertically misaligned values, and certain pane positions with all four values misaligned.



The lines in the note accompanying this block (photo from here) demonstrate this. You can also see the vertical displacement in the stamps of column 3.

In that photo, you can also see examples of the bottom margin copies (Michel suffix "L") and corner with plate number 37, indicating this is a MiNr 177 I y block.