German Stamp 242A

I started looking through my loose german stamps and this one caught my eye. It is a German Stamp 242A Used. It is watermarked. What do you guys think?

Interesting example.

Are you sure it's the correct watermark? One watermark catalogs at €2, and the other at €8,000.

Its the correct watermark, NO 126, @PostmasterGS .

If you believe you have the valuable variety you'll want to send it off for an expert's opinion. Any stamp worth nearly $10K should have a certificate in any case, but it's particularly necessary when the value is in the cancellation. Even if you have a stamp with the correct watermark, the cancellation could be (and probably is) a forgery.

Always a possibility, but keep in mind these have been extensively forged. The 1927 date bugs me a bit- Germany had issued more than 100 new stamps between 1923 and 1927. Why would the holder keep it for 4 years in the face of crushing inflation. I'd have used it as soon as possible after purchase. What was the face value of this stamp in 1927?

I'm not seeing a 1927, but that would be a total dealbreaker. It would not be in the proper period of use, and to inflation-era collectors, worthless.

If I was hoping to sell it, I would get a cert from a German expert. If I was keeping it, I would not bother with a cert. I would keep it, keep studying, and over time, perhaps have a firmer opinion.

My 2pf.

To my eyes, the postmark reads 1.11.27

I can make out November 1, 192__, 6-7pm. The year is not clear to me, but the only one that holds any value is a "3". Looks too "roundy" to me to be a "7" but I can't for a second say I am confident in the year.

These wouldn't have even been valid for postage in 1927. I don't know the exact date, but they would have been declared invalid for postage no later than late 1923 or early 1924. Even by late 1923 it would have taken thousands of these to mail a letter. The window of "in period" use is very small, hence the rarity of used specimens of some stamps.

If you have any intention of selling it, you'll need to get a cert. As shermae stated above, these are extensively forged.

I suspect the date on the cancel is 1 Nov 1923. These were only valid from 22 September to 30 November 1923, so any legitimate use would be within that window, and any forgery would only have value if within the same. On the date of the cancel, 1 November 1923, the cheapest letter rate was 40,000,000 Marks -- so you can see why a legitimate usage of this 8,000 Mark stamp on that date would be a rarity.

I strongly suspect it's a forged cancel, however, as from 1913-1962, Berlin post office 32 was in the east (O), not northwest (NW).

Wow. Postmaster needs a TV show.

Why do forgers make these types of dumb mistakes if they are going to take the time to make the forgery in the first place, or don't they know any better?

Here's a handy reference for Berlin postmarks. Until the switch to ZIP codes in 1962, Berlin post offices were each assigned a number and a geographic marker based on where they were in Berlin. This site combines several sources to give you an idea of when and where the respective post offices were.

oldguy, I suspect that in most cases, the forgers simply don't know what they don't know about some very specialized topics.

Plus, forgers aren't necessarily trying to fool the experts (although that would be a plus), they only need to fool a few collectors who don't know any better. In many cases I'd be one of those collectors, but at least I know enough to be skeptical of items like this.

Whiles some forgeries are easy to spot, others are only detectable by experts. Every one of these is stamped "falsch" on the reverse.