Germany Air Post 1923 Carrier Pigeon

I recently acquired three of the 1923 Air Post Carrier Pigeon issue, the C15, C17 and C19, all unused and hinged thus having little value.

Also in the group was what appears to be a C9, the 2 mark, but having a light grey overprint that is not mentioned in my Scott 2011 Specialized. The head, body, tail and wings are overprinted in what appears to be a network of interlocking design that resembles a post horn, while the background and the denomination are overprinted with wavy horizontal lines.

Has anyone in the Forum seen such an issue and, if so, will you share some information about it? Thanks in advance?

Donald

German stamps of the inflation period are famously/infamously overprinted by private firms. Sometimes there are political ads on them, and sometimes there are even ads for stamp shows or stamp dealers overprinted on them. I have seen designs without text overprinted on a few.

Since the stamps were worthless for postage after a very short period, they were perfect candidates for use as advertising stickers, because they were already gummed and perforated.

It could be that your stamp was used as practice material by a forger who was doing the 1948 posthorn overprints, to either cheat the postal service or stamp collectors. Check your catalog to see if your overprint looks like the "carpet" (overall) overprint.

Donald,

What you're seeing is probably the burelage underprinting that was used on some of the Wood Pigeon Airmails.

Here's a side-by-side of stamps without and with burelage.



There were four different sets of the Wood Pigeon Airmails.

Scott C3-C11 (Jul 1922) -- C8-C11 with burelage
Scott C12-C14 (Feb/Apr 1923) -- all with burelage
Scott C15-C19 (May-Jun 1923) -- no burelage
Scott C25-C26 (Jan 1924) -- no burelage

PostmasterGS, you are most likely correct, but without an image we will never know.

PostmasterGS is spot on. His illustration with burelage matches my copy. Now I have to look up "burelage underprinting", a new term to me.

Thank you very much.
Donald

Burelage
https://goscf.com/t/7397&SearchTerms=burelage

Thanks, Rod. I did a search last night in the Forum and that thread popped up. The pictures are excellent, as is the presentation, and I am surprised that I never before saw burelage considering that several examples in the thread were from Hungary and British Honduras and I have an extensive collection of the former and a considerable amount of the latter. I am going to reexamine them with a better eye and see if any examples are there.

Thanks, again.
Donald