Germany Inflation Period Complete Sheets... But With A Twist.

Ahh yes... complete sheets of German stamps from the inflationary period following World War I... the classic equivalent of wallpaper. Flyspecking/plate varieties notwithstanding, these things are all over the place. Worth a couple of bucks a sheet as curiosities, but typically not much more than that (yes there are certain types/denominations worth more than that but as a general rule this holds true). Same holds true for Adolf Hitler and other definitives from the World War II era. Interesting and historical items, but hardly scarce or valuable

You will also occasionally see these sheets sold by non-philatelists (antique dealers, flea market sellers, etc.) as "RARE!" but nothing could be further from the truth.

A couple of weeks ago, Apfelbaum listed several lots of these sheets, overpriced as usual. However, hidden in the midst of them was one lot that made me do a double-take. Full sheets from the same period, but not what you typically see:




I couldn't recall having seen many German States full panes in the past, Wurttemberg or otherwise. I did some looking around at the typical online stamp venues, including Delcampe and German ebay, auction house results including Reinhard Fischer and Cristoph Gaertner, and these aren't very prevalent in full pane form. The stamps individually are very common and do not catalog very much, but you don't see them frequently in complete panes, especially not in large groups.

These were printed two panes per press sheet, so gutter pairs are possible. Most examples I've seen online are the individual 50-stamp panes, not the intact 2-pane, 100-stamp sheet.

So I waited for the next high-discount coupon to come around and purchased the lot on a whim. It just arrived on Monday, and I'm very pleasantly surprised. Sixty complete 50-stamp panes, all Wurttemberg, with no duplication at first glance. I've only closely examined and scanned the first 20 sheets, but all of the sheets are completely NH, not even any hinging in the sheet margins. Some margin creasing or pinholes, but in general very fresh.

I haven't broken out the Michel Specialized to do any flyspecking, nor do I know that I necessarily will.

I had initially planned on flipping the lot intact, as the notion of trying to ship large individual panes was going to be a pain, but these panes are actually smaller than I expected and will easily ship in a standard page-sized cardboard mailer without being folded. So I may just list the panes individually.

Regardless, I wanted to show some images, as I find these aesthetically very attractive and not typically seen, IMO.

Holy crow, you did well
Beautiful.

Those sheets are rather aesthetic. Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!