Afghanistan - the classic issues - show and tell

A key element and challenge for identifying these classic Afgan stamps is to find out the value on the stamps...   It's fascinating / frustrating to see how the value 'inscriptions' are looking different from one stamp to another. I just updated my Page number 4, with an extended table below to indicate how these value tablets looks like on the 'Post office Colored' issues. I had previously included images from Michel and a Feldman reference collection, however these did not exactly match som actual stamps from Afghan Philately website
So, I've now included actual stamp scans of the value tablets for these issues as well.

Hope this might be useful
Jon

Here's quite an interesting feature of the Afghani stamps. The image below is taken from a strip of 5 offered by Feldman, see this Cataloge - see lot 10098. Notice how the designs vary considerably - the lions look like 3 different species 

Afghanistan 1871 - 1 Abasi - Plate 4 -  the inner circle without dots - Michel #3 IV / Scott #7

Quite peculiar! With these significant differences these stamps must be great for plating
Unfortunately the stamps do not come around too often in 'normal' collections tough, thus making plating challenging that way.

The early issues of Afghanistan were printed by lithography from stones. Each design on the stone was made individually (unlike copying from a master die) so the stamps vary considerably in appearance and design details for each position. This is part of what can make some value inscriptions difficult to identify - particularily when also poor printing and worn stones come into play for later printings.

Anyone else interested in Afghani stamps?

Haha, yes they should have had enough stones !! These stamps are certainly not common, and I think these are in the category that are harder to find than what the catalog values may suggest. Many of the Lions heads, excluding the 'Tablet issue', are actually 'affordable', however until now I have still not found any of them in all the WW lots and collections I have bought. Traded some from my brother, though

I'd say the Inverted officials from Luxembourg are even more challenging, tough...would love to see yours !!

Jon, thanks for starting this thread and for the informative posts of your excellent and comprehensive album pages.

To answer your question, I am definitely interested in these classic issues of Afghanistan, but I am not sure if I have much of anything to contribute other than my interest!  I will take a quick look this afternoon, but if memory serves me correctly, I may not have any of these.

Unfortunately, the clear differences which you show from stamp to stamp for these early issues, while making it easier to plate them, also make it harder to identify possible forgeries.  That fact combined with some pretty substantial catalogue values has made me wary of making any major purchases.

I will have a look at my holdings later today and see if there is anything worth posting.  I am enjoying the informative thread and discussion in any case! 

Beryllium Guy - thank you for the kind words and for reading my post with interest.


I'm more or less in the same boat as you actually, I have only a couple myself - you probably have more than me. Anyway, that doesn't stop me for preparing my custom pages ....   I have undertaken a major process of transferring my entire WW collection from stockbooks (160 x 64 pgs ) to a combination of custom made pages (until 1940) and Vario (after 1940). So, I am starting at the letter 'A' - and Afghanistan just had to be done, even tough I hardly have any classical stamps at all for populating the pages    The study of these iconic issues are very interesting nontheless. Earlier I were reluctant to even consider these stamps - due to lack of knowledge, probably -  now I am mentally prepared for taking on some of that 'black matter'. 


Spot on! You just said what I've been concerned about as well - seems one really need a very specialized reference for splitting the good from the bad. I haven't actually searched for that quite yet - first I need some actual stamps to examine   Then again it seems risky to actively purchase any of them before knowing more about the bad ones.

Does anyone have a good reference for detecting Afghani forgeries?


Jon

1840to1940 - Thank you for contributing!!
You are pointing on precisly one of the concerns I also had previously - but which I now realize really is not that much of a challenge. The thing is that the  listings in Scott makes one believe that it is key to dechifre the year on all of these classics. In reality, this is simply misleading - and this is only causing unnecessarry confusion for the ones not familiar with these stamps. Example given - all the circular stamps without a lion (Scott #109-176, as the stamp in your post) - they ALL have '1298' in the design - so there is really no reason to worry about them is there? This design cannot be confused with any other (as far as I am aware anyway -  maybe some revenues etc..?). The same is actually the case for all the other issues as wel - the design differences themselves and/or value inscriptions are sufficient to identify which series it belongs to. The question is - why does Scott then not rather put emphasis on a decent description of the differences in design rather than the 'useless', awkard and 'terrifying'  year inscriptions? 
The later is something I have tried to achieve on my pages - example given see the pages from 1875 onwards. No 'year' is needed, simply because the designs themselves is sufficient for identification. Which was also the driver for me to share with you guys in the first place. 

In retrorespect, I could even have removed reference for 'year dated' for all the series prior to 1875 as well. The 1873-1874 issues does have identical designs, however they will be identified by different value inscriptions, as the same values were not issued both years. All the issues prior to 1875 can be identified by a combination of the outer ornaments (outside the circular design) and the value inscriptions.  I opted to keep  the 'year dates' as reference in case one find stamps that has been cut to shape (and the ornaments have been cut away).

I am confident that if Scott had done a better job in describing the different designs, less collectors would have been having the experience 1840to18940 shared with us. I was in the same 'dark place' myself, reluctant to take interest in them, mainly due to these reasons. On another note, to be fair, it should be said that the images in Scott are actually really good for these issues (most of them anyway) - so I guess Scott expect each collector to study the images and recognise the differences themselves. If so, they should not have included the years' tough....

The simple key elements for identifying each series is included on my album pages. I hope this might be useful, in contrast to Scott (or Steiner).  I realize the images on my pages are 'dull', and may be hard to see. This is done on purpose because these are supposed to be actual album pages, and I do not want the images on the pages to look like the real thing - and even look much better than the actual stamps I would happen to find...  

If anyone is interested, I can send the pages on pdf with 'normal' images.
Jon

Back in the days when I still used a typewriter (Smith Corona electric, and before then I used an Olivetti Underwood manual), we would make the white on black labels/cards by sticking in a correction tape/ribbon/cartridge and type on black paper.

When I got into graduate school, I learned you could buy "pressure-sensitive" lettering in black or white.  We would rub those onto our electron microscopy pictures for our papers or conference posters.  But those things were fairly pricey.  Definitely a lot more expensive and more time consuming than the white correction tape, but a lot harder to "scratch off", sharper lettering, and a wider choice of font sizes.

Now everything is digital... you don't even have to develop your own negatives/pictures in a dark room anymore.  It's all click'n'print or click'n'save.

Very nice pages blaamand!

Oh this is one of my pet peeves (same with Michel, SG, Yvert etc. catalogues)....  

I can only salute the excellent pages/knowledge you shared. 

-k-

I just started looking into stamps from the Middle East. I have been purchasing stamps from Egypt, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. Afghanistan does appear to favor trains in many of their stamps. As a collector of religion on stamps as well as maps I found this issue right down my alley.