Anyone Know What This Is? (Berlin)

Can anyone tell me what this is? Thanks.



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Some call it the "Blue flea"
Lots of information here, if you search "notopfer"

https://goscf.com/t/11081#11081

I have one in an album I bought. It has what to me look like red smudges all over it, but the note written next to it says, "duty charged to raise funds for the assistance of Berlin", so I guess it's an overprint.

Thanks for the link.

Ringo, the red smudges are probably from a printed indica (meter) which was applied directly to the cover and the "blue flea". I have a couple of these covers somewhere in my cover boxes.

However, if the "blue flea" has the red overprint as shown below, it is a different tax stamp. These were required/used only in the French-occupied state of Wurttemberg for a few months in 1949...for rebuilding in that area.

I looked at the "flea.pdf" file, which captures a 32 page exhibit of the "Blue Flea". On page 3, there is a table "Stamp design". It lists four design types (e.g., a, b, c, d) in the column headers. The first row is "Catalogue number", parsed as

design a: 1 and 2
design b: 3, 4, and 5
design c: 6 and 7
design d: 8

What is it that differentiates different catalog numbers with the same design?

Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestion, bookbndrbob.

Now I look at it, I can see the word "Essen" in the bottom half of the red print. Is this the indicia you mentioned?

How these stamps are listed and numbered depends upon the catalog you are using. For example, Scott gives separate numbers to stamps with 2 different watermarks, basic perforated or imperforate form, and printing by typography or lithography. This is a shortcut method, because the Scott volumes "cover the world" and do not get into details with countries outside of the U.S.A.

In contrast, Michel lists 3 major watermarks, with 7 possible watermarks (inverted, and sideways varieties). Michel also illustrates and lists various design differences, perforations, and plate flaws. They also list and price pairs, blocks and other multiples.

In summary, for this stamp Scott gives you 2/3 of a column of information and listings, whereas in Michel you get 5 pages.

Ringo, stamped meters seem to be "not uncommon" on late 40s to mid 50s German covers. There are probably collectors who could give you the details on this Essen marking, but I am not one of them.

That leads to another question: what is the correct terminology for a meter marking on another stamp?

If you do a search on this site for BLUE FLEA ,you will see 2 pages from my collection with lots of types and watermarks , I don't know how to do the link stuff.

@floortrader

Thanks! I have already found your pages and have saved the images to use as templates for making my own pages. :)