Post by limhes on Jul 12, 2024 19:29:07 GMT
Recently my (Finnish) wife's grandmother passed, and some remaining stamps from grandpa's stamp collection (the main collection is missing?) have surfaced and found their way to me. Bags full of cut out stamps from 1875 until early 1900s. The most numerous are:
- Michel 16 A and B, 20 p ultramarine and shades, perf. 11 and 12.5: mostly round cancels (a few are blue), but also quite some figure and pen cancels and ANK
- Michel 30 A and B, 20 p orange and shades, perf. 12.5 and 14x13: cancellations are more uniform, mostly round town cancels
- Michel 28 A and B, 5 p green and shades, idem.
All in all, hundreds of 'em
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perf11_turquoise.jpg)
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perf11_figurecancels.jpg)
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perf11_pencancels.jpg)
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perf11_ANK.jpg)
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perf125_figurecancels.jpg)
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perfmixed.jpg)
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/catalog.jpg)
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/catalog_inside.jpg)
- Michel 16 A and B, 20 p ultramarine and shades, perf. 11 and 12.5: mostly round cancels (a few are blue), but also quite some figure and pen cancels and ANK
- Michel 30 A and B, 20 p orange and shades, perf. 12.5 and 14x13: cancellations are more uniform, mostly round town cancels
- Michel 28 A and B, 5 p green and shades, idem.
All in all, hundreds of 'em
I've sorted them roughly, first on perforation, then on color shades and cancel. Here's some interesting finds from the 20 p bags.
First one is perf. 11, color turquoise. It is very different from all the grey blue and green blue/ultramarine stamps, and the only of its kind. Cancel from 9 December 1875, stamp was issued on 1 July 1875 according to my Finnish-Swedish catalog (in German; see below).
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perf11_turquoise.jpg)
Then a selection of figure cancels on perf. 11:
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perf11_figurecancels.jpg)
And pen cancels on perf. 11. The left one could be from Jyväskylä according to philatelia's source?
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perf11_pencancels.jpg)
ANK cancel on perf. 11:
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perf11_ANK.jpg)
More figure cancels on perf. 12.5:
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perf125_figurecancels.jpg)
And then my favorite, lucky find. A mixed perforation from the Karta Sigillata printing, perforated 12.5x11. This one is also the only stamp in the whole bag that has a proper blue color, consistent with Michel 16 Db which lists this variety as the only with the color "blau".
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/perfmixed.jpg)
Some background info:
- For color identification, I scan RAL color cards (green blue, grey blue, ultramarine, etc.) and scan the stamps using the same flatbed scanner. Then I analyze how close the stamps' color is to the reference color and like that I color sort them. For the perf. 11 stamps, this left me with roughly 50% ultramarine, 30% green blue and 20% grey blue, which matches the price points in the Finnish-Swedish catalog of these cheapest varieties.
- As a main reference for these stamps I use a catalog, again from grampa's non-existing collection, that somehow surfaced:
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/catalog.jpg)
And here are two pages of the 1875 (perf 11) series:
![](https://www.limhes.net/upload/images_stamps/catalog_inside.jpg)