Belgium 302, 302A And 307

For these 3 stamps the 302 and 307 are easily identified by their colour and perforations. However, when it comes to 302a I have confusion. It is listed under the Perf. 14x13-1/2 section. However, all of the examples I have of what is clearly a light brown shade have the 11 1/2 perf. I also see on HipStamp that the majority of listings for 302a show an 11-1/2 perf. stamp.

So my question is whether 302a is listed in Scott under the wrong perforation or whether there truly is a 302a with the 14x13-1/2 perforation? The attached images show the 2 colours I have for the 11-1/2 perf.

Which in your opinion is the 302a?

In my opinion it would be the bottom right one, which in that case would answer my question that it does exist in 14x13-1/2. However, then what is the one that I have with the same colour and 11-1/2 perf.?

One site identifies 302a as the bottom left one. The bottom right one would be 307 and is the 1951 issue with perf. 11.5. The other two are identified as 302 - top - and 302a - bottom left - from 1936 with the 14 x 13.5 perforation.

307 also has a phosphor variety from 1969.

I have my doubts about the bottom right stamp. It has the colour of the 1951 stamp, but looks to have the 1936 perforation. The one you post - right - looks like the 1951 perf. 11.5.

Very interesting. No wonder I am confused.
Attached now is the scan of the 3 shades that I have. The top one is the only 14x13-1/2 perf that I have. The bottom left is the only 11-1/2 perf of this shade that I have and I have several of the 11-1/2 in the shade of the bottom right.

So if I understand your comments correctly, the top one is 302a and the bottom 2 are extreme shades of the 307.

The cancellation on the top one is from 1948; that would make it one of the 1936 issues and thus not nr. 307 that is from 1951. It seems the bottom two could be shades of the same issue.



Catawiki identifies these as OPB nrs. OPB 434, 434A and 434B. It does seem there are shades. Apparently, there is a "Poortman" listing of shades.

Here is a repeat of most of the previous information as found in the 2019 Officiële Postzegelcatalogus (COB) from Belgium.
The Belgium catalog lists three colors for the Perf 14x13.5.
COB 434 and 434a are both brown-violet issued between 1936 and 1943.
COB 434A is pale brown and was issued between 1946 and 1949.
COB 434B is lilac-gray and was issued between 1949 and 1951.
The COB also lists three colors of the perf 11.5 issued in 1951
COB 848A is gray-brown
848Aa is brown-violet
848Ab is reddish violet
There is a variety of 848A listed that translates from Dutch to "pimple on the nose"
There is also the phosphorescent paper issued in 1968 listed as 848AP3 and it is gray-brown.

Thank you all. It is interesting that Scott catalogs the colour variety for the perf. 14x13.5 series but not for the perf. 11.5 series. As previously mentioned it is also very interesting that 90% of the 302a listings on HipStamp are actually the 11.5 perf 307.