Help In Identifying If Stamps Are From DDR Or Not

I've got a box of over 12,000 off-paper stamps that I'm going through and listing on ebay in small lots of 130 or less. There are quite a few stamps from Germany. Obviously the ones with DDR or Deutsche Demokratische Republik are East Germany / DDR issues. I'd like to keep those East German stamps separate from my "main" lots.

I read another post here on this subject but came a way confused. What about the following inscriptions:

Deutsche Post
Deutsche Bundespost
Deutschland

Yeah, I know - a Scott catalog would clear things up, but I can't justify spending the $$ just to get a handle on these DDR issues.

If someone could give me a definitive breakdown on the German stamp naming scheme I'd really appreciate it. :-)

Thanks, Jim

Two other resources to help:

1. You can look up stamp designs on www.stampworld.com

2. Your local library may have stamp catalogs you can use

Anything with Deutsche Bundespost is from West Germany, so not DDR.

Deutsche Post could be early post-WW2 from either of what became East or West Germany.

Phil

In addition as of May 1995 German stamps were no longer inscribed
as Deutsche Bundespost but Deutschland
This was excactly 50 years after the end of WWII
So no more DDR, Deutsche Bundespost or Deutsche Bundespost Berlin stamps.

Thanks folks - good info. And now I understand why I was confused - most specifically, stamps inscribed Deutsche Post. As flip138 noted - they could be from either west or east Germany. I have one here that I did a Google Image Search on and it said it was one of the DDR issues. Sure enough, I slogged through the pages of stampworld.com and found it there. So, apparently if I come across something with Deutsche Post I probably should just use Google to find out its origin.

If I were inclined to list these stamps by catalog number then by all means I'd invest in a catalog. But for my purposes I just want to identify the country or origin.

and do not forget: at the end of German Democratic Republic (GDR = DDR), the inscription changed back to "Deutsche Post" (between July and October 1990).

If you buy a reasonable catalogue* for German stamps, you will actually always have all German 'countries' included (old German states, German Reich (in three different versions), Allied occupation issues, Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Soviet occupation zone, German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Berlin, Saarland etc. etc.).

*e.g. Michel Germany or Germany Special (there are even catalogue editions in English). And since you are only interested in the issues of the GDR, and this 'died' in 1990, an older issue (e.g. 2007 or 2009), which you can buy cheaply as a used catalogue, will also suffice.

Best regards from Switzerland

André

Hi K7TXA, I use a popular cell phone app that I cant mention here but has been a huge help for me in identifying stamps when I don't have my catalog with me. I would ask the experts about this

Deutsche Post
Deutsche Bundespost
Deutschland

These are either "West" Germany or today's united Germany.

Also DDR stamps often had that silly hammer and sickle insignia. Do not live anywhere you are expected to use a hammer and sickle. I have no idea why anyone collects DDR stamps, but I do understand that Germans must feel it's part of their country, so maybe they should. I have an entire collection of all DDR stamps from the beginning and it was depressing to put together. I did it because, like German stamp collectors, I already had a large "Germany" collection, so . . . .
But it's so uninspiring and gloomy to look at, I think if someone knocked on my front door and asked if I'd give them my entire DDR collection, I'd hand it over. I don't even look at the thing. Also I have a very large Russia collection, and ditto for that. The things we collect and then wonder why we did that.

DrewM:

I'm totally with you on your distaste for the stamps of the DDR :-} Depressing is a great word to describe them--but I don't like any of the Communist bloc stamps. Russia, Hungary, Romania, all of that is so boring and...CTO that I just can't get behind it.

Like most people, I suppose, I have LOTS of stamps from DDR and other nations from that time period. I keep "planning" to assemble albums for them, but I take them out and start sorting them and I'm like, blah :-P I'd have to print up the Steiner pages (like, a MILLION pages for the prolific nature of these nations!), then since most still have gum, I have to make holders for them (BORING!!).

All those CTOs, did anyone ever actually USE any of those??!! I understand that Scott requires evidence of actual usage to include in the catalog, but I've long suspected that these postal authorities put a couple on letters and POOF! the stamps were "valid." To its credit, the DDR does show up as postally used from time to time. I get them out of kiloware sometimes.

I collect worldwide--or at least I "aspire" to do so. But I can't get my head around this and similar nations' stamps. I *do** have LOTS of them, just not albumized. Doesn't that count?! Can't I honestly say I'm a worldwide collector because I have a bunch of DDR and Poland and Czechoslovakia stuffed loose in a box somewhere??!!

Of course, for those who like these stamps, I applaud your interest. I wish I shared it. Interestingly, I AM interested in the CTO periods for other nations like Panama and Ecuador, for example. But I love South and Central America, and there are always lots of "good" stamps to include in my collections for those nations :-}

Josh

Understandable feelings. I have the same reaction when I see US collections replete with page upon page of pictures of slave-owners, which is why I don't collect them.