More 1954 German Definitives

I found more of these stamps in a saco stamp stock book. Figured I share again, but could not add to the other one I have. Wanted to keep sharing though so here you go.
Cheryl

Cheryl,
Germany DDR 5 year Plan.
One of the most ubiquitous stamp sets in history.
Every new collector interested in stamps, should try and complete,
it is a fun challenge that costs next to nothing.

The complete set according to Scott catalogue


Under a magnifying glass, this set is made up of tiny dots, unlike the later redrawn set using lines.

There is one more important feature of these East German stamps which needs to be explained.

There are stamps which were genuinely issued for people in East Germany to use, and there were very many more stamps which were never issued for postal use. These reprints were never gummed. The cancels were printed on them when they were made. These are called "cancelled to order, or C.T.O. stamps. They were made to put into inexpensive stamp packets for collectors.

The original stamps are different printings, and they have distinguishing characteristics. The Scott catalog only briefly mentions this, and the used stamps of the original (postal) printings are not given values. No guidance is given to the collector to distinguish original printings from non-postal reprints. The Michel Deutschland-Spezial catalog describes the differences of each of the values in the set.

Here is an example of an original printing (pair of stamps on left) and a reprint. The Michel catalog describes the reprint/c.t.o. of this 12 pfennig, offset-printed stamp (on the right) as having heavy text printing.

Also, more experienced collectors can distinguish the differences between postal and printed (c.t.o.) cancels.

All new to me Bob, Thanks.

Holy crow, thanks guys. While Germany is in the front running for the collection I got, there are just so many other countries too. A lot to take in. I'll be sure to double check as I may actually have most of the stamps posted by you rod222. I have to say that just in the few I sorted in another envelope, there does seem to be only one that is just more than the others. Being new I'll have to study further to see if it is one that you mentioned Bob. Thanks again guys, this is finally starting to click and I love the history.
Cheryl

Almost every stamp in these sets is inexpensive but there are two or three notable stamps that catalog for up to 2,600 euros each.

bookbndrbob showed a couple of 12 pfg stamps, the left pair original and the right stamp a reprint. Here's how to tell them apart:
Original: the second "E" of DEUTSCHE is over the "T" of DEMOKRATISCHE.
Reprint: the second "E" of DEUTSCHE is over the "A" of DEMOKRATISCHE.

These stamps also have watermark and perforation varieties. You could fill an entire album with just this one issue.

These were some of the first stamps I ever remember getting as a young collector, brings back memories.

Thanks Germania, saved.

For those interested, ALL the 5 year Plan stamps, I posted here on album pages (makes easy to sort) ........
(excluding those brought to attention by Bob and Germania)
https://goscf.com/t/51245 br /

Jay Carrigan had an excellent webpage for these, but it lapsed following his passing. You can still see the archive of it at:

https://web.archive.org/web/20121227002040/http://www.jaypex.com/Germany/DDR5YearPlan.htm

(Copy and paste the entire link. SCF automatically makes it two links due to the format of the archive link, but neither works independently.)

Nice work, Postmaster. Thank you.
What an exceptional Philatelist Mr. Carrigan was.
Assisted me with lots of Yugoslavia queries.

Wow. That really lays out a lot. I thank you both and again will have fun on the identifying route. So cool. :):)