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Postage stamps and philately of Japan (Nippon)
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Forgeries of 1940s Japanese definitive postage stamps
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 (Nippon) stamps of the 1940s. These forgeries are said to be very common and a guaranteed part of every worldwide collection build since 1960s.
...(532 words,5 images, 3 comments)
Definitive postage stamps of Japan: "Animal, plant and national treasure" series
Japanese postage stamps provide plenty of eye candy for the casual worldwide collector, and one of my personal favorites is "Animal, plant and national treasure" definitive series run from 1950 to date. As the name implies, the series doesn't have a strict topic; instead it offers a broader view of Japanese heritage. Philatelically speaking the series looks easy, but as usual there's a lot more to it.
...(1040 words,13 images, 17 comments)
Taxe Percue postmark
Recently I acquired a small worldwide collection from dealer, and on back of the book section I found two square cut "BUREAU DE POSTE / SHIBA JAPON / TAXE PERCUE" postmarks. I remembered seeing similar items somewhere earlier, and after some Googling I found an answer.
...(120 words,1 images, 6 comments)
Japanese New Year's postage stamps
One of the most common Japanese stamp types to come by are new years postage stamps. These stamps are used mainly on new year greeting cards, which are highly popular in Japan (most families receive over 50 new years greeting cards each year). The first Japanese stamp for new year wishes was issued in 1935, and special stamps were also issued the following two years before the outbreak of second world war.
...(300 words,3 images, 5 comments)
Japanese hometown (Furusato / prefecture) postage stamps
Carrying on with the topic of Japanese postage stamps, I'm heading towards the prefecture stamps (also known as as Furusato or hometown stamps). These are best described as kind of local governement stamps. Depending on the catalog these are listed either as separate section (Scott), in appendix (Stanley Gibbons catalogs pre-2010) or on separate section (Stanley Gibbons catalogs 2010 onwards), or mixed with regular national stamp issues (Michel).
...(431 words,3 images, 24 comments)
About early Japanese postmarks
One of the greatest challenges every stamp collector faces is identifying stamps and postmarks that use foreign writing system. Like most western people, I'm most familiar with Latin alphabets and numbers. So when I last week reworked my collection of Japanese stamps, I was ahead of some serious challenge. Fortunately the years have thought me few handy tricks / cheats worth sharing.
...(621 words,5 images, 18 comments)
Japanese 1898 parcel post revenue stamp
It's been couple of rainy summer days, so I've had some good time to sort new stuff into my collection. Below is an bizarre item that defied my catalog lookup skills for couple of days. Finally I went online and searched for about hour before landing with definite answer. It's an Japanese parcel post revenue stamp of 1898.
...(102 words,1 images, 12 comments)
Interesting Japanese postmark
Here is an interesting looking postmark on very common definitive stamp from Japan.
...(55 words,1 images, 16 comments)
Some classic revenue stamps of Japan (updated)
Here are some 18th century revenue stamps from Japan. Normally I would know very little about these, as they fall out of the scope of regular postage stamp catalogs. But with little help from my online friends I think I've nailed these pretty accurately. As many of these stamps come up frequently under the 'I've got an unidentified Japanese stamp...' discussions, I think these are worth sharing.
...(360 words,4 images, 3 comments)
Q&A: stamps of Japan
Do you have a question about stamps / philately of Japan (and related territories)? Your questions answered. ...( 16 comments).
Article categories
- Generally speaking about stamps, philately and collecting
- Learn the basics of stamp collecting - advice on how to get started
- How to preserve and build a stamp collection
- Philatelic knowledge base
- Stamp forgeries, philatelic fakes and other counterfeits
- Stamp collecting software (inventory programs and databases, online stamp catalogs etc)
- Straight talk about stamp values (both catalog and real world)
- Back of book stamps and other unusual stamp-like items
- EFO-stamps: errors, freaks and oddities on postage stamps
- Q & A - Ask anything about stamps and collecting
- Article index by country and topic
- SCB's Digital Perforation Gauge