Comments on: Beautiful La Semeuse (the Sower)

By: Dik Bakker

Dik Bakker — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 14:13:26 +0000

Acutally, part II of the excellent (but quite expensive) Maury catalogue does give a breakdown of all the types with prices for the individual stamps with bandes publicitaires, and not only the prices of the complete carnets from which they stem, as does the Yvert (2009: 517-544). In my 2009 version of the Maury there is a special section Bandes publicitaires (p. 1147-1162), with an interesting introduction for those who read french.

Dik Bakker

By: Keijo

Keijo — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:32:51 +0000

@Dave C …. Thanks for sharing the warning.

@Larry… I haven’t come accross with any, but I’m pretty sure there are some (French) websites specializing in these. StampBoards has a pretty good discussion on the series in general: http://stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6413

By: Larry Matthews

Larry Matthews — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:28:37 +0000

Nice artricle but what I am wondering is, are there any sites that lists the constant varieties of this particular issue. While I do not collect them per se, I do have many of them that have come my way in collections that I have broken down.

Happy collecting

Larry Matthews

By: Dave Caplan

Dave Caplan — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:42:04 +0000

The Sower.

I read with interest the posts on the Sower stamps with advertising tags. Like many collectors I love the whole range of sowers, and I have a few with tags, but beware……I recently bought, on the internet, the stamp with the Phena tag. As soon as I saw it I was certain it was a forgery. It was fuzzy and patchy, almost like being out of focus, and most of all it was flat, no contrast. I’m just glad I didn’t shell out big money for the Mineraline one.

By: Dik Bakker

Dik Bakker — Sun, 08 May 2011 14:09:18 +0000

Hi Keijo et al,
With respect to the bandes publicitaires (pubs) on the Semeuse:
I do not collect them systematically, but in my collection of France
there are quite a few. These stamps stem indeed from booklets, and
the advertisements can be both on the top and the bottom
(no difference in value, since they were equally frequent).
I think that between 1906 (Yvert number 140) and 1939 (Yv.360) they
appeared on around 12 types of the Semeuse, typicallly the more
common values. Apart from the Semeuse, they also appeared on
Orleans (Yv.257), Expo (Yv.272), Paix (Yv.283, 365, 368), Petain (Yv.517),
and after the war on some Marianne de Gandon values (Yv.813, 886, 1011B).
There may be some more.
I think the latter one (1955) was the last, but I am definitely not an
expert in these matters. There must be separate publications about them,
and maybe even catalogues. I will have a look at that (with the danger that
I will start to collect them seriously), but I am sure someone
out there knows more about this area.
Note that the Semeuses are very well researched in french philately, and
with all the varieties are a collecting area in their own right, with and
without the pubs.
I think the Semeuse 50c red and the Paix 50c red and 65c blue are the most common ones: I have around 30 different pubs of each of these, just picked
up here and there, without really searching.
They all catalogue just a few € (used), and trade in my stamp society for between 20c and 1€ on average. The only really expensive ones are the Semeuse 10c green Yv188 Phena (€50) and above all the famous 188A Mineraline (€550), which is quite difficult to find real used (that would be an auction piece).
And there is a variety of the 25c on 30c (Yv.217) that catalogues €200.
With all the types and varieties ‘une mer a boire’ as the french would say,
but definitely less challenging to complete than a ‘world collection’ …

Best,

Dik Bakker