Hyperinflation In The Weimar Republic

These five stamps in my collection demonstrate the hyperinflation in Germany in 1923. The stamp on the left (800 thousands mark overprinted on 500 mark - green) #300 in Stanley Gibbons 2004 catalogue is valued over £1000 when cancelled. How do I know the cancellation is authentic.

I meant the stamp on the right!,

It certainly doesn't look like an authentic cancellation. These things require certification.

Genuine used hyperinflation stamps are extremely rare. Most collectors had these stamps cancelled to order and genuine cancellation devices were used. They do exist but the safest bet, and you would still need expert analysis, is an example on cover. I should add that many of these stamps were only of a value sufficient to mail anything for a period of a few days before inflation again rendered them virtually useless and thus not utilized.

At last look, certification by the BPP required a cancel with a readable town and date, allowing comparison with known genuine, favor cancelled and forged cancels.

Very typical for the time was a double ring cancel:

This is from the beginnings of the inflationary period (February). Not mine, nor has it been expertised. Caveat emptor.

The 800t on 400m brown has what appears to be one, but should show something within the ring and does not. Agree with GeoffHa, the stamps here unfortunately appear like someone added forged cancels.

It takes many years of experience plus having many hundreds and maybe thousands of canceled stamps as a reference point to make any statement about them being real .

I believe there are only two or three students of the German Inflation period alive in the U.S. today . who can claim expertize on this subject. There are some stamps that are easy to call as fakes because they made so many and are common to find .

No scan or photo can duplicate the necessity of knowning the correct ink shade or color .

I believe you need a reference file of hundreds of difference cancels to be sure ,I never seen in the U.S. a stamp auction lot go up for sale of a reference library of these issues .

Also, I would expect that there are honestly used stamps out there that will never get a good certificate because they weren't clearly cancelled. If the cancel is not clearly an 'honest' cancel, then the stamp won't get a good cert. Too bad, but a fact of philatelic life for this type of material. Like rogdcam said, having a cancelled stamp on cover is probably the best evidence of honest usage.

Hi,

Rene, are you sure it is a 5 not a 3 behind the 8?

For this era, cancellation not readable: value = MH. So not much.

Best regards

Hornet

Here's a cover from my collection, postmarked in Nordenburg, Kreis Gerdauen, East Prussia, on 7 May 1923, before the rates skyrocketed into the thousands, millions, and billions. It looks like a genuine postal usage to me (there's even a letter inside the envelope!), and the rate is correct for the date (300M for international letters up to 20g from 1 March to 1 July).

Hello.
Outside of the letter, neither new nor canceled are worth anything.
These are mine and below the two that I am missing.
Regard.

Covers can be faked, too, since genuine cancel devices have come into private hands. There are favor-cancelled ones as well, not quite the value of genuine postal usages. One tell is that the rate on the fake covers is typically incorrect since the rates (which are known) were constantly changing/rising. So good on erilaz for doing that research!

Hi Rene,

I just noticed that you have an overprint variety (250/300 second from the left) missing one vertical bar. Coming from which OPD (Local overprint) I do not know. There are many. This is not the variety 20bars instead of 21 but another one.

Best regards

Hornet