Oddities In Collection?

I have been going through my german stamps and came across these 1. the Two(2) stamps with unusual cancellation. 2. the little tiny thing to the right.
my questions, is this a rare cancellation. 2. what is the little thing?

3.The stamp looks like it was stamp over 1000 mark with 125
Please

The "little thing" to the right is called a Blue Flea. The history is complex, but basically it's an additional tax stamp you had to buy when posting a letter in Berlin after the end of the War. Others may have more precise info. They are extremely common.

3) "tausend" is german for "thousand". That was inflation period in Germany.

1)


(from Wiki)

Circular multiple ring cancel no.79 is the town of LAHR.There are 177 different towns in Baden.

My two pages of a study on the "Blue Flea " is on this website if you search Blue Flea .

Wow so much history so much to learn this forum has so many answers and people...Thank you. I have so many questions! I just opened a collection of german stamps last night (of "Tausends")

I have not been an active participant in philatelic study.
I have been collecting on and off for 40 years U.S. stamps
I have recently acquired 10's of thousands if not more of world stamps mostly german but lots of other countries too.

I understand most all stamps have a sentimental, historic value and I being a past plate maker/printer love the artistic value they give.
Their is always the hope of stumbling across uniqueness

having somany stamps and not knowing what you have can drive you bonkers just to sort them out take so much focus and lots of room and time.

I do not have any world albums so I have to get some or one. until then I'm sorting them out into cardboard cellophane covered cards.

If anyone knows of a good world stamp book to get or books of volumes on different countries that helps with identification, explanations/history of the stamps would be appreciated

In closing I found another one of those tiny ones but it's a little larger and green I take it is the same thing as the blue.
i also pulled out of the pile I believe a couple hitler stamps.

There's "something" called "catalogs", where you can easily find all these stamps. If you go to your nearest library and ask for a "Scott Stamp Catalog", you'll see what I mean.

Your Bruxelles (19)09 stamp is a Belgian pre-cancel. There is a thread somewhere on the site about Belgian pre-cancels.

Bear in mind that damaged stamps; like your red Hitler stamp; have no value unless the damaged stamp is an extreme rarity.

The "green" stamp is from Belgium, perhaps a precancel of Scott #82. The two Hitler heads probably belong in the wastebasket as they are extremely poor copies of very common stamps.

oops looks like Steve beat me by 5 minutes

Thank you, I thought that would be the case in the hitler stamps. I don't know what precancels are... although it sounds self explanatory. I never saw a hitler stamp before....I must not get out much.. Ha Ha.

I do have a huge pile to sort through.... so maybe they will get trashed.
Thank you for your reply, both of you.

Remember a nice condition, used Nazi era stamp is usually worth a little more than a mint specimen, though usually this is the difference between very little and not much.

ciffic,

Id probably settle on some vario sheets for storing the stamps rather than albums. Unless you plan on being quite complete in a country or many youre paying a large premium for a stamp album which will end up with a lot of empty spaces. Just my humble opinion.