Belgium 1941 Orval Semipostal Souvenir Sheets With Overprints, Scott B303-B304

Either someone at Amos Media is smoking crack with respect to valuation, or how it's written up in the Scott Catalogue as to what they are referring to is off the mark...

In October of 1941, Belgium issued two souvenir sheets depicting "Monks studying plans of Orval Abbey":

Scott #B303: 5fr + 15fr perforated 11.5, inscribed "Belgie-Belgique"

Scott #B304: 5fr + 15fr imperforate, inscribed "Belgique-Belgie"

Catalogue values listed are the same for both versions: $10 mint, $10 used, $25 never hinged.

In footnotes below the listing, Scott mentions the following:




Where the heck did those values come from? If you look on ebay, the overprinted sheets listed in the footnotes sell for $15-40 each. Nowhere near the dollar figures quoted. On Delcampe, they're even cheaper.

I notice on ebay that there are trimmed overprinted souvenir sheets both with and without serial numbers. Are the non-numbered sheets remainders?

One variant that is appearing in much smaller numbers is the overprinted sheets NOT trimmed.

So what's the deal with these sheets and what is Amos Media smoking?... or is what is on the market reprints/fakes of some sort?

Cannot see any reference in Officiele Catalogus 1987

Google translate
October 5, 1941, printed in sheets of 1 stamp, blue and gold outdoor use on 1-10-1942, edition 343,960
BF 18 to 21 and private issues included.

Only ref to expensive are "specimens" at 15,000 Bf

Some Orvals are listed in PRIVATE UITGAVEN
I'll need to scan the page.
(Guessing here)
Can you offer a scan of your example (if you have a sample)

In additon to Rod post. This is a scan from the 2001 catalogue. Still in Belgian francs(i will come back to that).



First some translations.

Engelse cijfers: English numbers
Gotische cijfers: Gothic numbers(both are shown on the scan)

Rode overdruk: Red overprint
Blauwe overdruk: Blue overprint

Getand: Perforated
Ongetand: imperforated.

Genummerd: Numbered
Ongenummerd: Not numbered.

Afgesneden: Trimmed

Some explanation on the souvenir sheets.

Block 18/21 are trimmed examples.

So there are 4 trimmed souvenir sheets numbered and 4 souvenir sheets not numbered(A type)

Souvenir sheets 22/25 are untrimmed
Being placed under the not numbered kolom, I presume they are not numbered. The catalogue is not completely clear on that.

So all together there are 12 possible souvenir sheets.

combined catalogue values: 34500 Belgian Francs unused and 19800 francs used.

After some calculation that is about a 1000 dollars unused and 550 dollars used in catalogue value.

So I suppose the Scott catalogue is giving an catalogue value for a full set of 12 souvenir sheets.

Excellent, thanks Johan.

Thank you both! Especially for the extensive translation. That makes sense. Scott is indirectly referring to the entire set of all variants, but it's poorly worded in such a manner that one could rightfully assume that it's a set of 2 trimmed sheets (or even per trimmed sheet) that's worth that amount... which explains a couple of ebay listings asking $1,000 for a single sheet.

I'm amazed at just how many online sellers don't bother to check populations of similar items both current and previously listed before they list something esoteric or presumably scarce, just to confirm that they are in the ballpark.

Amos personnel have indeed been imbibing in excess mind altering substances me thinks. I have been working on a new Country collection and at least a couple of "key" items as defined by $ value are so abundant you cannot swing a dead cat without hitting one (apologies to cat lovers).