France Sower - 10c - Maury Type Ic

Hi all. Scott #162 (Maury #138) stamps below. I have a 2009 Maury Ceres & Dallay catalog. In the Maury catalog, there are 3 listed types, IA, IC, and II. The types IA and IC have a bar under the Q. The type II has a dot under the Q. The IA an IC can be further distinguished by the shading lines on the back of the right hand. The IC is missing a shading line.

Both of the stamps here have the missing shading line, so I classified them as type IC. What I'm really wondering about is why the 2nd stamp has neither a bar or dot under the Q. Was there a different type at some point? Maybe a type IB? Maybe there is something in newer versions of the catalog.

Bar under Q and missing a shade line:


Nothing under the Q and missing a shade line:


Closeup in the Q:

https://stampforgeries.blogspot.com...e-sower.html

Quote; "The 10c has 5 known forgeries and none can be considered as "dangerous". It appears the main objective was to create postal forgeries and not to fool collectors."

Thanks for the link. I reviewed each of the 5 forgeries shown. None of them seem to match either of my stamps.

Have a look at the shading lines on the grain bag. There seems to be a difference between the two stamps, with the second on having fewer lines.

I bought an accumulation of French stamps a week back. These Sowers are pretty interesting!

I think you've correctly cataloged these, though note that your second "mystery" stamp is over-inked and generally is a bit splotchy, looking the way paint seeps under the edge of blue painters tape rather than making a nice crisp line. I believe that Q was just the victim of a bit of extra ink that covered up the needed detail.

By the way, Yvert uses the type IIB for the earlier 1906 issue with thin letters, as the type used on postal stationery. They may have skipped over the B version of this later stamp, just to leave the placeholder (though I don't see similar note about postal stationery for that issue).