Weimar Republic Overstamps

I'm a complete novice. I came into possession of a 1948 Scott Germany and Colonies album.My guess is the previous owner was pretty serious about collecting. My specific question is about some pages of unused (ie uncancelled) Weimar era stamps that have been 'overstamped.' I understand why they did that, inflation and all. My confusion arises from the fact that some of these stamps have stubs, like the one I am going to attach to this post. So, my two questions are, are these overstamped issues collectible, and what is that stub about. There are a few pages of these type of stamp. Thanks for your kindness and patience in reading and, hopefully, responding to this query.


*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Hi Doug - These stamps are widely known as the "inflation issues" and are some of the most common German stamps. In fact, I have in the past had large piles of complete sheets of these stamps. Speaking of sheets, what you are seeing at the bottom of your stamps is the margin of the sheet often referred to as selvedge. For these particular issues the selvedge adds little if any value. You can find many markings on selvedge such as plate numbers, values for postmaster ease of accounting/use, printing related information etc.

Thanks for the information. I'll probably put some pages from the album on ebay for small opening bids and see if anything tickles someone's fancy. Best wishes.

What you call "overstamped" is known as "overprinted."

Inflation was so high that the stamp hardly paid for postage by the time you left the post office. Most of these overprinted stamps from the hyper-inflation era are in plentiful supply mint.

Doug,

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences.

My personal bias is a used stamp loses the story of its journey in the postal service when it is removed from the cover it transported to its destination. Collecting postal history adds a whole new aspect to your journey in our hobby.

Wishing you many enjoyable future days in our hobby. Russ

Thanks, saying an overprinted stamp makes more sense than saying an overstamped stamp.

And in this case, it would be correct to say a surcharged stamp.

Hi @dougbail
I advise you not to rush to sell stamps that have selvedge with different markings.
In the specialized Michel catalog, the value in some situations is greater than 10 to 1000 times.
The marking at the bottom (unfortunately it is incomplete - a pair of stamps is collected/valued) is called "Hausauftragsnummer" (HAN) = House order number.
Your stamp was printed in two colors (gray-red and orange-red, the latter being the more valuable color)
If you had a pair of stamps with full HAN, the value would be 8, 12 or 500 Euro (for the color orange red)
During this period of inflation, some stamps were overprinted by several postal departments, each with a mark at the top of the sheet.
If you have stamps that have markings at the top like:



it would be good if before you sell them you would be interested in their value (there are values of several thousand Euros)

Cupram - I must have gotten rid of a fortune!

Seriously though, the reason why some markings are worth thousands of euros is because they are rare. Like extremely rare. Like less copies around then the inverted Jenny. Great to point out that they exist but the odds are akin to being hit by lightning while holding the winning lottery ticket. No?

@rodgcam
I am not convinced that the very high values in Michel are influenced only by the rarity index.
I always had the feeling that with these high values, collectors are provoked to send them for expertise in the hope that they have found the rarity.
I give as an example Michel # 289 (overprinted 100 thousand) which alone has a value of 1 and 1.6 Euro. (MNH condition)
This stamp was overprinted by several OPDs (Oberpost direktion = Main postal direktion) resulting in 46 variations depending on what appears on the upper selvedge (with values from 2.5 to 6,000 Euros)
If a 6mm overprinted bar appears on the upper selvedge, it means that it is issued by OPD Frankfurt and has a value of 300 and 1200 Euros ("graupurpur" color) or 4 and 25 Euros ("grauviolett" color)



Variants with high values are bought with a BPP expertise certificate.
I don't think there are many collectors specialized in this field - but the experts certainly have enough stamps to examine.

I do agree with rogdcam.

Only the top row of each sheet has the margin with this overprint attached. Then, each district had its own overprint, some overprinted more than others. Different printings caused shade differences. And not all stamps from the top row survived. Of those that survived, not all have the margin attached.

There are many permutations of the stamp with marginal overprint that result in rarity or even extreme rarity of listed varieties. There also are fewer collectors interested in them. Consequently, extreme rarities may not attract the extremely high prices of a Blue Mauritius. They still are priced according to rarity in relation to demand.

Many collectors fill the spaces in their albums. A Lindner album may have spaces for all shades. A DAVO, Scott, or Stanley Gibbons album may not. Lindner, probably, has no spaces for each of these top-margin overprints. That leaves only few that specialise in the varieties of these overprinted stamps with margins attached.

Michel is a German catalogue. It caters, primarily, for the German market and has a strong presence in East, Central, and North Europe. German collectors will be biased towards German (and occupation and colonies) stamps. Michel, therefore, will have a very detailed listing of German stamps.

In Germany, it is quite normal for stamps or sets that cost 100+ EUR to be bought with a certificate. This is not limited to expensive varieties of an otherwise common stamp. If you walk around a German city and come across a stamp shop that advertises such sets, you, often, will see they state the sets come with BPP certificates.

Great stuff, cupram. Thanks for sharing.