Germany 1872 First Issues

Yes, it's an artefact of the scan. The embossing is the way it should be. Soon the family portrait of those eagles will be complete! It's literally been years in the making.

In my latest arrival, I received the following stamp:



It was identified as MiNr. 17a, which I understood to be a large breastplate design (YT #14), but it's clearly the small breastplate kind (YT #2). So not quite what I expected. At least it's a nice on-piece specimen with an interesting postmark, so still a keeper.

Another month, another auction. This time, I snatched the 9 kreuzer red-brown large breast shield issue (YT#24 & AFA #27):

This month, I lost out on all but one of the lots I was bidding on. But the one I won was the most important one. Here it is, the 18 kreuzer brown small breastplate embossed eagle German Empire issue (AFA and YT #11):
 

Xavier (hrdoktorx), first of all, thanks for posting all of your acquisitions in this thread over the past months... you have acquired some really nice material, there.  Congratulations!

But I have read Werner's (salentin) post and looked again at the images of small versus large breastplate features re-posted by René (renden), and I think that he (Werner) has a point.  It looks to me like your latest one is actually the small-breastplate variety.  I think I can see it in the leg and the layout of the wingtips.

If it was misidentified and incorrectly listed in the auction by the dealer, can you return it if you don't need it?

Thanks for your follow-up post, Xavier (hrdoktorx), I am glad to know that it was just a typo rather than a problem with the stamp.

I don't have anywhere near what you have in these early embossed issues, but I recently bought an old album page with 10-12 examples of these, and I have been able to add a couple I didn't have and upgrade a couple of my previous ones.  I will try to remember to scan that page today and post here to show how mine collection is shaping up.

These have long been a weak area in my classic Germany collection, but thanks to a couple of nice stamps acquired in a trade with Roland (cara) combined with my recent acquisition, the page is starting to look more respectable.  I will post again later.

Sorry for the digression.  The main point is that you are making excellent progress on yours, and it is great to see!

just received these last night. Alwaysa some concern over forged cancelllations, but a nice addition!  Small shields

any tricks discerning Imperial Eagle to Eagle with large shield  when the embossing is not clear???

I know the 1/3 Gr green is a large shield, but the others are eluding my eyesight!  I have turned the brightness setting all the way down on my scanner.... which helped somewhat, but not enough.  Looking from the back i'm no further 'illuminated"

to my eyes the centers of these stamps are just blurred blobs

It looks sorta-kinda like top row outside are large and middle is no &^$#!@ idea!

bottom row small, left large, and right has to be large, but again a guess... one look I think I see ther ends of the wings, then a blink later, maybe a bigger smaller shawdow in the middle....or I'm trying to just see something whether it's there or not... 

and some of this may simply be "unable to positively identify"

Thank you!  my guess were closer than I thought!

Or better yet, just ask PostmasterGS!

Among the new arrivals in my latest order, this copy of the small breastplate 3 kr. carmine rose, MiNr. 9:

Looking for Help with Stamp ID
Germany Sc4a Imperf or Mutilated Stationery or Something Else?

I recently acquired the stamp shown below as part of a trade. It looks to be a German Empire 1872 Small Shield issue, but with a twist.  I can tell by the white along the margins that it's not simply a trimmed perforated stamp. The Scott Catalogue does list an imperf Sc4a, but the catalogue value for used is "--," which I guess means not enough data to quote a value?

So, is this something unusual and potentially interesting, or is it just a piece of mutilated stationery or something else altogether? Anyone have any ideas about this? I will tag a few members who may know about this: PostmasterGS, salentin, cara, rednaxela, khj, scub, others?

Also, on an enlarged image of the scan, I noticed that there seems to be some sort of small-character-size inked linear marks as parallel lines, the top one of which starts in the upper left corner of the stamp and slants diagonally across the stamp to just below the mid-point at the right edge.  The other line is a bit below that and crosses just under the shield in the embossed vignette and goes through the middle of the numeral "1" in the lower right corner.

In looking closely at the parallel lines of text, it almost looks like a can read the French word "OUVERT" (open or opened), but I can't be sure. Any advice or comments that anyone can offer about this stamp and these markings would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the quick response, franoise

Mutilated stationery.... as I suspected it could be, but I hoped it might be something better.  Ah, well, if that's the case, then so it goes.

Any idea about the linear printing?