Germania: War Issue By Date Of Cancellation?

Both stamps cancelled during or after the war. Could they still be peace issues? I'm not saying that they are. Indeed, I think they're probably not. But still, is it possible for peace issues to be cancelled this late?

The 50pf. Stamp with the nice VIGY, Lothringen/Lorraine 1916 cancel has the look of a possible peace printing. The 30pf. Stamp really has the look of a war printing. Those are my guesses.

I can't remember ever having seen a "peace" Germania stamp with a 1920 cancel, and I have thousands of them.

Vigy is in Lorraine, but I'm now leaning your way on that stamp.

So let me push the matter a bit further still: If the 50pf shows no sign of a watermark, could it—despite the date of cancellation—be from the 1902 series?

It is probably possible. I don't have a VIGY cancel, so I'm guessing it is was a very small place in 1916.

I can recall purchasing some presidential series stamps around 1960 at a tiny US Post Office in Washington, DC. I was very happy to get some Andrew Johnson 17 centers.

The 30 Pfg is definitely a war printing. The horizontal background lines are uneven in width. The 50 Pfg is most likely a war printing but I could not say definitely.

If you cannot see a watermark it does not mean it is the unwatermarked issue. It may not be visible due to poor paper quality or the dandy roll was beginning to wear out.

Here would be a good place to note the peace/war printing question. The catalog seems to imply there are two printings, one peace and one war, but that is not so. There are as many as 15-20 different printings, depending on the denomination. As the war progressed it became more difficult to obtain quality paper and ink. Near the end of the war it was difficult to get experienced printers. So the stamp quality went down, but not in a linear fashion. Some stamps may have good paper and poor ink or vice versa. If you want one of each it's simple. A 1914 or earlier cancellation is always a "peace" printing; a 1916 or later cancellation is almost always a "war" printing. While it is always possible that a person mailing a letter had a stamp that they found in a drawer (which is how one could have a peace printing stamp with a war date) it seems that most Germans would go to the post office if they needed to mail something.

One interesting way to display these stamps is to collect a few with every year date from 1902 to 1922. It is then easy to see the progression from excellent quality to very poor quality, though the difference between consecutive years is almost negligible.

Thanks to you both, but especially to Germania for a very helpful overview. These stamps have now become one of my main collecting interests, both for the design and for their ongoing involvement in a period such great historical significance.




Can any similar conclusion be drawn from the unevenness of the surrounding white frame? (Not on OP, but on others I have.)

I think Germania's advice is very good. Separating these stamps by year cancel is the best way to examine these stamps for print and paper quality, as well as color shades (but not color confirmation). This is particularly true if you have a large number of them.

If you are really interested in these, you will need a Michel Deutschland-Spezial catalog. And if your curiosity gets the best of you, you will contact an expertizer in Germany and send some of your "candidates" for evaluation. Then you will get some real surprises, I have no doubt.

As Germania already suggested there is NO peace versus war issue!

It is a continuum that shows influences from war conditions. Other war circumstances - WWII - may have some influences on definitives like i.e. the UK change of inks.

What the Germans are doing is absolutely ridiculous and only serves the German "Prüfer"who can make a living out of our stupidity ;)

Quite right about "war" vs. "peace" issues. The task, I think, should be to distinguish stamps printed before the war from later issues that, to a varying degree, progressively show the effects of war-time conditions. A task we can undertake or not, depending on degree of interest.