China 30s And 40s

Someone gave me three heaping glassines of Martyrs and Sun Yat Sen; some clear, some overprinted and some others double overprinted. I don't know a single word of Chinese and cannot read a single character other than as an image. Does anyone have a magic formula for identifying the different provinces, etc? Right now I seem to be spending a lot of time on each stamp and I figure there must be an easier way. I hope there is because the chappie promised me another truckload of duplicates when next we meet. Thanks a lot in advance.

Tony Vella

I can't teach you any shortcuts, but you can post pics or a link and I'll try to ID them for you. However, I can only provide Scott catalog numbers.

That's the apprenticeship of China, no other way

Perhaps sort into like lots and post an image of each sort, we can give you at least the year and area.
The overprints are reasonably easy, Tony.

Thanks very much, fellas, it sure is an apprenticeship!
Here is one, for example, which is giving me problems.
My pdf search tool finds only four 50c on 5c but none of the four overprint examples given in Scott is anywhere like this overprint.
This is why I asked for some magic shortcut, because I have loads where this one came from.
Thanks again.

I will help you to translate the words use my proficient Chinese.

Scott 2008 catalog, page 315, #9N9, CV 0.25 for MNH or used.

@ZhangCheng

My goodness, there goes one of my hours! Thanks a bunch.

Here's a chance to teach me something: This stamp is refered to as 5 on 1000 on 1. Where is the 5 ??
Thanks in advance.

Hello Tony,

You are welcome.

Yes it is #621, the "5" is ¡°Î顱-the green character at top left corner.

If you are looking to read numbers, here is a table.



The chart above applies to both simplified script (PRC) and traditional script (ROC).

Note, however, there are variations not only in font style, but also between formal/traditional writing. For instance, you will notice the "5" in your overprints has an additional 2-stroke radical at the left, that is not present in the chart. You will also see the same 2-stroke radical at the left of the character for "thousand" on the 2nd stamp you showed.

k

Khj has done a good work for Simplified Chinese Character.

Here is the Simplified Chinese Character for "dollar":

Ôª and Ô² both are Simplified Chinese Character, used on the monetary unit and mean the same, Ôª is used more than Ô² in China present time.

Here is the Traditional Chinese Characters, used on the mostly overprints on China stamps:


Below applies to both Simplified Chinese Character and Traditional Chinese Characters:

Thanks Khj and Zhang Cheng,
great reference material.

Thank you very much Khj and Zhang Cheng. Sure helps a lot. I'm still trying to find the character "cent" in "10cent".
I guess I shall try and learn them as images. I notice that in Scott some o/p are shown as four (corner) characters and yet on some stamps an additional character appears on one side, mostly the left. I'll try to find an example and put up a scan. Thanks again.

Thanks to both of you for the reference shots. Very useful!

Collin

Tony, in the traditional script, a separate character for "cent" in "10cent" is not used. While the character for "cent" does exist, there is a special single character for "10cent". It's kind of like in English, we know that a dime is 10 cents. We will say, "give me a dime" or "give me 10 cents", but we would not say/write "give me dime cents".

The special character for 10cents in Traditional Chinese Script is shown in the bottom row of ZhangCheng's chart.

In your first pic showing the 50c on 5c, the left 2 characters of the overprint are "five" and "dime" -- in other words, 5 dimes or 50c.

k

Please note: I have amended again my faults that Ôª and Ô² both are Simplified Chinese Character, in the monetary unit mean the same, Ôª is used more than Ô² in China present time.

Sorry.

Important Correction

I posted my original pictures on another forum, and a member from HongKong leaved his point of view, his view reminds me that I made a big mistake about using the concept of Simplified Chinese Character and Traditional Chinese Characters to sort the Chinese numerals. They should be sorted by Chinese Numerals and Chinese Accounting Numerals. All concept of Simplified Chinese Character and Traditional Chinese Characters I posted above should be replaced by Chinese Numerals and Chinese Accounting Numerals. Really sorry for this, and thanks again to my compatriot.

Eidt: add the Traditional Chinese Caracters "ˆA" in the Monetary Unit, which used frequently in the China early stamps.

Many thanks Kim for you reminded me.

Here is the correction:






Done...I hope.