This weeks article picks up pretty much where I left off two years back with my entry about Lebanese stamp forgeries, except being on topic of  fake Syrian postage.  For what I know, the source of these fakes is the same.

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Postally used stamps of German hyperinflation era are said to be minefield of fake cancellations. Each and every stamp catalogue provides a slightly different wording, but the baseline is same: catalog values (from August 1916/early 1919 to end of 1923) apply only for INFLA-signed/certified copies, anything else should be treated equal to mint stamps value. Thus it is somewhat excruciating that many sellers, buyers and collectors do not pay any importance to provided guiding, but always get stuck with the *what if…* scenario.

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Not so long back I acquired a mixture of “Chinese” stamps. As always with packages described like this, the contents was actually mixture of oriental stamps from Persia to Japan, and anything in between having non-western writing. Possibly the most interesting part of the lot were various forgeries of Japanese definitive stamps of the 1940s. These forgeries are said to be very common and a guaranteed part of every worldwide collection build since 1960s.

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As all readers hopefully know, SCB provides a paid Premium subscription that gives you access to all there is. And then there’s the time- and feature limited (but still generous) Free Trial. The latter has been technically built as such that no person should be able to have more than just one signup without knowingly frauding the system. And all in all, the system works well. People who enjoy the contents upgrade and become Premium subscribers and supporters of community sooner or later. And folks who are not up to it simply let their free trials lapse and become forgotton. But would anyone knowingly fraud the system? In the end the annual subscription is only 18.40€, and the money goes fully into supporting the SCB website.

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Not sure how life goes with other worldwide collectors, but for me status quo means that there’s always some unsorted auction purchases etc. on my stamp desk awaiting. However, in recent times that pile has grown way larger than I feel comfortable, mostly because of work and life interfering with my collecting habits. As I’ve now got the doctors orders to take life slowly (besides work) for next couple of weeks, I have been trying to put some focus on reducing the size of that pile.

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It is somewhat rare that a stamp collector writes an book of their hobby and interests these days. It is even more astonishing that the book becomes an international best seller. But Norwegian ASFE (A Stamp From Each/Everywhere) collector Bjørn Berge has done so with his book ‘Nowherelands: An Atlas of Vanished Countries 1840-1975‘.  The original Norwegian edition was released in 2016, and ever since the book has been published in number of languages such as Finnish, Swedish, English, Dutch , German etc.   Ever since I saw the title on Christmas sale last year it’s been on my wish list and I finally received a copy. 

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Like many stamp collectors I too occasionally struggle with stamp watermarks.   Most of the time watermark are relatively easy to see by simply placing the stamp face down on black background or viewing the stamp against a source of light. But then there’s always one or two stamps that refuse these methods.  They are cause of both angst and frustration. One of my plans for the past summer was to experiment with various watermarking fluids, and figure out if there was any real world difference with various watermarking fluids available.

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At times it is bit of a shame that stamp catalogues do not cover the historical backgrounds of selected stamp issues in more detail. One such example are the East German (DDR) officials. I know a lot of stamp collectors consider these stamps either as toxic waste not worth their time, or alternatively they are very much afraid of their complexity. As so often in this common hobby of ours, a lot of it comes down to what kind of knowledge collectors favorite stamp catalogue provides.

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Lately I acquired a Spanish collection of about 2,000 different stamps (about the same size as my collection, except this was mixture of used and mint). For 33€ (all fees included) it was yet another cheap auction buy. But with only three blurry images to describe the contents of it all, it was also a bit of a gamble. I assumed that 80-90% of the 2000+ stamps would be the same as in my collection, and at least 10% of the stamps would turn out to be faulty. So all in all I was expecting to add 180-360 stamps on a good day; making the acquisition cost 10-20 cents per stamp.

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I think most of us stamp collectors have got love/hate-relationship with long running stamp series with consistent theme and appearance. As such Spanish Post did strike a home run in the 1960s and 1970s when they launched not just one, but actually eleven(!) annually running long stamp special series – many of them with engraved designs. In total these series contribute approx. 750 stamps to collect. The reason I use approximation is that there are some not so hard definitions on what to include/exclude with count, but it comes down to personal preferences where to draw the line on the sand.  Since these stamps make up over one fourth of all Spanish stamps issued between Second World War and Euro-era, knowing the elementary details and boundaries of these series can make sorting Spanish stamps significantly easier.

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