Germania Issues: Difference Between Peactime And Wartime

Hello Everyone,

Having researched the stamps of the German Empire, I have found that there were five distinctive issues of the Germania definitives, which I now have the task of differentiating between. As far as I know, there were five issues of Germania within the German Empire and three within the Weimar Republic:

German Empire:
1) 1900 Issue inscribed 'Reichpost'
2) 1902 Issue inscribed 'Deutches Reich' and no watermark
3) 1905-1914 Issue inscribed 'Deutches Reich', watermarked Peacetime Issues
4) 1914-1918 Issue inscribed 'Deutches Reich', watermarked Wartime Issues
5) Issue with white backgrounds, except 75kr

Up until now, I have been able to differentiate between all of the issues, except between the 'Peacetime' and 'Wartime' issues. I believe the difference to be something to do with the Paper Quality and lines behind the figure of Germania, but really I have no idea how to differentiate between the two.

Does anyone have any advice on how to classify Germania Stamps between Peacetime and Wartime?

Thanks,

James

Here's Michel's visual aid.



If in doubt, feel free to post a high-quality scan and I'll take a look.

postmaster to the rescue!

Thank you ever so much, PostmasterGS That really helped! I shan't probably be differentiating for a couple of weeks yet, for I'm first sorting everything up until 1900, including German States, which may take a while; before now, I've only really collected Commonwealth before and my German Stamps have been in various world ring-binders for goodness knows how long, so I thought it about time to sort out my German Stamps and transfer them in to 'proper' albums, where they are all completely sectioned and labelled. Thank you ever so much for the offer, though and knowing the basics of how to differentiate will really be very helpful. Thank you!

The war and peace printings are not that difficult to differentiate, with a good magnifier and sufficient light. The COLORS, however, must be expertized Expertizer Jaschke-Lanterlme's book on the Germanias shows that there is no way a German specialist can "self expertize" the colors of these stamps.

If in doubt you can resource to the postmark date. If prior to 1918 it is definitely the first issue of 1905-1911.

Good luck!

Juan

Juan, are you saying that all the wartime Germanias were printed in 1918?

The earliest war printings were of the 10, 50, and 80 pfennig stamps. They were available in March of 1915, according to Michel. Also, peace printings were not used up prior to the availability of the war printings, so the logic of using cancel dates to identify these stamps is incorrect...except to say that they are definitely peace printings if they have postmarks before March of 1915.

Thanks, book!

Outstanding thread and info! I wonder if the "crusty gum" referred to by Michel what we often call "crackly" or "crazed" gum?

The differences Michel is giving you are not decisive - in the German edition Michel refers to "satiniertes Papier" for the Peace printings, but the calandering of the paper surface - shiny surface by friction - can be seen on ALL Germania stamps to some extent or another .... The watermark can be clearly visible in stamps issued after March 1915 as well... So why are we making a split into Peace and War????

And as to colours! If only an expert can tell and it will cost a lot of money why bother? And let them get rich?? They may have invented the colour shades themselves! ;)

At one point in time, I divided up my many hundreds of each these stamps (3pfg, 5pfg, 10pfg, and 20pfg) into piles by year date of cancellation. The colors and quality of print, as well as the paper, are identifiable by year. These are 2 different types os stamps. However, I found that there are 2 years where the "war" and "peace" printings are questionable/impossible to distinguish...1915 and 1916.

Do Michel and the expertizers make too much of minor differences? It depends on whether or not you want to collect as a specialist. If you are not interested, then ignore the differences and use a catalog that does the same.

I, for one, will not question the integrity, or judgement of a person who has spent decades studying a narrow range of stamps, who has a vast reference collection, and who is willing to share his knowledge with others through his writing.

Color shades in my collection ---