German Stamp Newbie

Good day everyone,

I answered an ad in our local newspaper for a 100 year old stamp collection $5. The ad was a few days old and I thought surely somebody has jumped on this deal already and to my surprise it was still available. There were alot of 60's world commemeratives but there were nostly german stamos, which I am totally unfamiliar with. My preferences in collecting lean mostly in early 19th century U.S. stamps. Which is why I am here asking this question. Are these stamps rare in this condition MNH and is there a website where I can learn more about german stamps. I gratefully appreciate all input. Thanks, Jonathan

Hello Jonathan and welcome! The stamps you show were mainly issued during a period of high inflation in Germany (1921-1923). Stamps were issued and overprinted in higher and higher denominations almost on a weekly basis in order to keep up (yours are up to 2 million marks - the highest value issued is 50 billion marks). Millions and millions of stamps were printed but never used due to the constant enormous rate changes and these were eventually released to dealers/collectors.

As proper usage for these stamps was confined to a very narrow window, used stamps with genuine cancels in period have value, but MNH stamps are very common and therefore only worth pennies each.

Here's a great website with more information on these issues:

http://www.stamp-collecting-world.c..._hyperb.html

Thank you for the warm welcome and for the information! Wow,that is awesome that it's collectors 101 in reverse with this particular type. I love it! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know.

All The Best, Jon

Jon,

Check out the website in my sig block, and if you have any soecific questions feel free to let me know.

Welcome! Germany is one of those areas where used stamps are often worth more than mint stamps - sometimes a lot more. When I say "often", that doesn't mean "always" or "usually", but there are a LOT of German issues (mostly from before 1950 or so) that are worth more in used condition than mint, much moreso than is the case with most other countries. This also creates another issue for collectors, namely bogus cancels, so you need to approach "valuable" used German stamps with caution.

Germany is a great area to collect and really encompasses a whole lot more than just the country of Germany as we think of it today. Keep in mind that there has been only one Germany (philatelically speaking, anyway) since 1990. Prior to that there were always at least 3 or more German entities issuing stamps at any given time. This includes the former East Germany, Berlin, old German States prior to unification, stamps that Germany issued in countries they occupied during the World Wars, stamps issued by the Allies in Germany after WWII, etc. It's like collecting 10 countries in 1.

Lets not forget the Deutsches Reich which issued stamps between
1872 until 1945 plus the Saarland and the Free State of Danzig etc.

Here is a list of the different German postal entities over the years,
taken from the back cover of an old Michel Deutschland.

And some of those are split into further stamp-issuing entities. For example, Altdeutschland ("Old Germany") is actually the 15 old German States. Some of the others can be sub-divided as well. When you get down to it, there are several dozen "countries" that are collected as part of the German sphere, and most of them don't have "Deutsch" or its derivatives anywhere on the stamp. Although the German Empire was never as far-flung as that of France or Britain, a German-area collection is somewhat analagous to collecting British Commonwealth or French Colonies, etc. Most of the German areas just happened to be a little closer to the Fatherland is all. All this is largely due to the repeated fragmentation and unification of Germany over the years.

Thank you! @ Jenny2U,TheArtfulHinger, lithograving and PostmasterGS

Very interesting information guys! I picked up on Germany having a larger precence as I started seeing the overprints stamped on various entities but didn't realize the total magnitude of Germany's reach. Facsinating stuff. Also out of all that I've searched thus far, I've only found 2 cancelled stamps!

Unless the stamp is from Austria, Switzerland or Liechtenstein, if it's got German writing on it, it's likely considered part of the German sphere by collectors specializing in that area. To confuse matters, some areas occupied by the French after WWI also contained French writing. Anyway, enjoy the stamps for their own sake and don't worry too much about values. While it's not impossible you could just stumble upon something truly valuable in a cheap lot, it's not very likely.

One can expand a bit further into the broader "German speaking area." This brings in Austria and its various entities; Liechtenstein; and Switzerland.

The last country does have four different recognized languages. But in my visits there, German seems to be the predominant language except maybe around Geneva. Have yet to visit the far south-central part of Switzerland adjoining Italy.

Yes, there are collectors who collect all the German speaking areas inc Austria, etc. This will sometimes include Luxembourg as well.