German Varieties -Flyspecker Group

These were in an album I'm breaking down. They were marked as shown, I would never have spotted these varieties:

Interesting! I would have never known to look! Now I need to go Flyspeck all of my German collection!

KRelyea,

If you ever decide to part with the pre-1945 ones, let me know.

Hi KRelyea,
It is a very good idea to open this group.
I collect German stamps and I found many constant (recorded in Michael 2011) or accidental varieties.
Some examples from the Berlin-Brandenburg 1945 series
In order of posting they have the position from sheet: field 6, 7, 12, 13, 16, 23 and 96.
Is there another group on the SCF with the varieties ante 1945?

KRelyea has certainly given us some lovely scans. I particularly like the upside-down "8" and I see it is the only variety listed in Scott for that stamp, 241a, the 8 thousand on 30pf, green.
When I look in the Michel Specialised, things get more .... German. First the colour of the basic stamp turns from green to "from dark to blackish opal green" and we get quite a few listings under the two headings of "Flaws of the original stamp" and "Flaws of the Overprints". For the basic Michel overprint, Mi. 278, I can see Mi. numbers I, III, IV, V and VI but they have omitted the one in your scan, II. However, flaw number I is listed as "8 inverted, plate position 44 or 96" so that must be it.
I guess it was a bit different in the older Michel catalogues when whoever wrote it up gave it as Mi. 278 II.

The sideways shift of the 5 on the 40 pfennig stamp, described in Michel as "from reddish orange to yellowish red" rather than the more mundane red, is not given a separate Michel number in your scan and indeed it is uncatalogued still. This is your chance to impress the editor ... send it in! Other varieties (on other stamps) are listed where the overprint is out of position by tenths of a millimetre, so surely yours qualifies for a listing.

The overprints come from August 1923. Inflation was galloping along in the thousands, but it took one more month to get to the hundreds of thousands, one more month to get to the millions, and one final month more to get to the billions. Your stamps were literally worthless within about three weeks of their issue.

Although the "5 over s" shift on the red orange stamp is not listed in the Michel Deutschland-Spezial catalog, it is mentioned in the Kohl Briefmarken Handbuch which goes into greater detail on Germany issues of 1872-1925.

Michel could not print a catalog listing all the known plate flaws and varieties in a reasonably priced, specialized catalog covering the area that it does.

Thanks for the reference, bookbndrbob. It helps enormously to have a good reference when staring at these stamps, otherwise it is just too easy to overlook something. Which edition of the Kohl Briefmarken Handbuch would you recommend, or are they all ok for this era? I have looked around on the internet and there are a confusing number of copies, but the most available seems to be the 11th edition in five volumes.

Hi indigo. The Kohl handbook can be very useful for understanding aspects of the early German stamps that you probably wouldn't find anywhere else, at least not in one volume. It is German language, so I have only translated those areas that are of interest to me.

My copy is ancient (late 1920's?), and it was poorly repaired...so, I have no information on the edition. In fact, I photocopied and enlarged this book and then did a nice binding on it. This worked out perfectly, because my pencilled translations are on the left sides (the blank sides) of the pages

For those interested in going into more detail with German Inflation issues, you may want to visit this website:
https://www.infla-berlin.de/11_Buecher/Buecher.php

Book Number 19 covers the overprinted 1923 issues.

Here are a couple from Germany French Occupied Rheinland-Pfalz

Michel 5

I call this one Head Shot



Every stamp in column 3 has a straight K Type II
Normal stamps have a hooked K Type I

GERMANY
French Occupied Rheinland-Pfalz

Michel 14

Flock of Birds



The writing in the selvedge is by a previous owner.
Since it was written in pencil not pen I thought
it would be easy to erase but fearing I might damage the block,
I left it alone.

Lithographing, there is also Michel plate flaw #I on the 15 pfennig sheet piece you show. It is at position 23. It is the downward streak in the hair by the "1" of 15.

Thanks Bob

So this would Michel 5 plate flaw I. Correct?



I only have the Michel Standartkatalog which doesn't list
plate flaws.
Is the Karl Marx Head Shot a constant variety?

Yes, that is it!

I used Dr. Hans Flatters' Franzoesische Zone Handbuch und Katalog when I saw that you showed a large multiple. There are small, identifiable plate flaws for the majority of positions on the 15 pfennig sheet, so I wondered if there were any more "important" ones on your piece which are recognized by Michel...and, "bingo" there it was.

The Flatters catalog illustrates every identifying mark.

The "wart on the forehead" (pos.42) is Mi. 5 PF II. (c.v. 7.-), and the "streak in the hair" (pos. 23) is Mi. 5 PF i. (c.v. 8.-).

Thanks again Bob.
I actually like Head Shot better than "wart on the forehead"

Here are a couple more.

GERMANY
French Occupied Rheinland-Pfalz

Michel 15

Egg on Orb



Dot on Z

The "spot on orb" (pos.29) is Mi. 15 PF II. (c.v. 16.-), and the "white spot between L and Z" (pos.49) is Mi. 15 PF VI. (c.v. 5.-).

Also, there are two more Michel-listed plate flaws on your 1 mark piece. Position 36 shows a curved line to the of the knee. This is Mi. 15 PF IV. (c.v. 5.-). And, field 46 shows a "white spot on the P of PFALZ". This is Mi. 15 PF V. (c.v. 10.-).

Nice block!