Need Help To Identify German?

Hello all,

I had these sitting in my "to do list" of sorting, just wasn't a priority. I saw a similar stamp in another thread here which reminded me to hunt them down. Why is there a difference in the revalue? I have a small box of Reich stamps to sort through which appear to be from the same era. I know this is difficult to answer without seeing them but are there stamps I should be on the lookout for as the "hard to find" variety?


Thanks in advance for your replies,
Eagle

If I remember correctly, the unused hyperinflation issues are all pretty common. I`ll try to check my catalog in a bit unless someone else chimes in soon with the skinny.

Your stamps in the Scott catalog, from top to bottom:

Germany 266, 266, 251, 251

All 4 are at the 2016 Scott catalog minimum value of 25¢ for unused.

The surcharges appeared during the German hyperinflation of 1923, when prices would double on a monthly, even weekly basis. There are a small handful of premium stamps in the hyperinflation issues that are not EFOs -- it's easier for you to simply look through the catalog listing, than try to describe them.

You will notice many of the used values are significantly higher and italicized. The used price is for genuine postally used stamps. Cancelled stamps that were never postally used abound, and in general are no more valuable than the unused stamps.

Thank you for responding, so off to the Library I go then. Would the same series be similar value NOT revalued and unused?

As I have been going through these, it appears to me when they revalued some of these that they simply grabbed sheets from a stack of sheets without regard to what they were revaluing.

Since I cannot get to my Library today or several days as they are remodeling, are the below stamps printed as intended, or would values change as necessary simply by changing a second color plate? 10 Billion of anything sounds like a lot but I know wasn't worth much during their inflationary period.

Thanks again,
Eagle

Again, all 4 of your stamps are at Scott catalog minimum. I cannot say if the motivation behind having the denomination a different color/shade was so they could easily change the amount during printing. I don't know the history behind the production.

However, soon afterwards several of the "lower denomination" stamps were also surcharged into the milliarde (billion) range.

After the currency revaluation later that year, the same set design was produced from 3pf to 100pf. Interesting that the "lowest denomination" stamps would appear later, but that is the revalued currency. Mint stamps from that set are valued above Scott catalog minimum.

The only stamp of any value from the original, unsurcharged series is the 50 mark used stamp. (Nr. 228.)

Thank you khj and KGB!

German inflation issues were in use for a very short time - often just weeks in some cases - before rates increased and new denominations were needed. This left large stocks of unused stamps left over that were no longer useful as postage, and they were sold to dealers at a huge discount after the fact. Today, they are some of the most common stamps in existence. Genuinely postally used copies are usually worth more (often orders of magnitude more), but one must be wary of fraudulent cancellations.

Just to give you an idea how they worth nothing, I purchased an old Scott album once and the guy used those stamps as hinges, they was split in 3 and after fold. I soaked the pages to remove the stamps