Wait,Wait..Don't tell me (Stamp edition)

I think the telltale sign is the little blue tic in the upper right of the escutcheon.

Thanks for the flag image, Ryan. Had never seen it before...

The right stamp looks like a bright-white-paper forgery.

I'm trying to avoid getting out of my chair to grab Tyler's Focus on Forgeries. Pretty sure he addresses this stamp.

I'll need a refill sooner rather than later, so if no one chimes in by then...

Unfortunately, it is - not yet - in my collection.

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Hint: It has something to do with the Cruiser Konigsberg.

The NWPI looks to be postmarked MOROBE, a little spot on the coast that the Germans used for colonial administration, and seemingly occupied by the Australians at the start of World War I. Interestingly, Cragg lists an early-use date of 1913, but supposedly the occupation occurred after the start of hostilities, so that is a bit of a puzzle (to me, at least...probably an easy explanation).

Korogwe received 606 of the 10-pfennig stamps, which does not sound like very many, but only Mombo received more (1000). A couple of the post offices only received 200 of that value. The five-pfennig value seems to be the most numerous, with several thousand being distributed. A very nice block.

Something to look for on your Germanias, folks. They're out there.

I’ll take a stab at the North West Pacific Islands stamp. We are looking for an overprinted 1 pence King George V Australian stamp. Considering the overprint first, according to Scott, there are two types of overprints: Type a where the “P” of “PACIFIC” is above “S” of “ISLANDS and Type b where the ”P“ of ”PACIFIC“ is above space between ”I“ and ”S“ of ”ISLANDS.“ This looks like to me like type “a.”

There are three one pence KGVs with the NWPI overprints; Scott 12, 41 and 42. Scott 41 and 42 would seem to be eliminated because they only bear overprint type “b.” There is also a color difference between these and Scott 12, although my eyes would never be certain whether I was looking at carmine or carmine red without having both next to each other.

Scott 12 comes with two die types, I and Ia. Ia has “a small white spur below the right serif at foot of the ”1“ in left tablet” which I don’t see here. So this eliminates 12b.

Adding to the fun, there are multiple varieties of the letter ”S“ in the Type ”a“ overprint. According to Scott, “these occur in three combinations: a, both normal ”S“; b, 1st ”S“ with small head and long bottom stroke, 2nd ”S“ normal; c, both ”S“ with small head and long bottom stroke.” I think the illustrated stamp has two “Ss” with small heads and long bottom strokes.

So I’m going with Scott 12 with overprint “a,” variety “c.” If that isn’t right, how about Norwegian Mission Post in Madagascar?

Jkjblue (Jim), I am honored to be a recipient of the John Walter Scott Citation Award for being able to copy and paste from the Scott catalog.

I done some digging around, info I did find was hard to get, but found a cover someone selling with a similar cancellation and seems to be a tax cancel.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stamp-Dealer-TURKEY-1914-SUPERB-PHILATELIC-TAXE-COVER-/370346712825?pt=UK_Stamps_ROWStamps&hash=item563a625ef9

I'll add that Scott seems not to list them, although I think I remember reading that Scott may be adding them to the Classic Specialized for some countries. (I just checked the 2013; not in there. I don't have the 2014.)

Years ago I picked up a set of Tunisia stamps with a "T" punched into the stamp, kind of like a giant perfin. That's where I came to know of them. Although Scott did not list them, they were listed in one of the French catalogs. (Looking under Tunisia in the 2013 Classic, I see that Scott has added them, with a "JA" suffix. Now motivated to find my old collection of them ...)

-- Dave

Sorry, Jim -- I should've known you would be right on top of these things! It's I who usually isn't.

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