Definitive stamp

Not a fan of machins but always like this pane.

There could be a thread of definitive definitive series of countries.

I'm another fan of seemingly boring definitives.  The Germania series you show is fun to look through for postmarks - Germany's empire was much different then than it is now and you can often find town names on these old stamps which are now given different names and found in different countries.  Once upon a time I got an envelope full of Germania 10pf definitives and after seeing some odd names, I found that many of these stamps were postmarked with towns from what was then East Prussia and is now Kaliningrad, a part of Russia.  Gumbinnen!

If you can find information on varieties (whether online or as a printed catalogue), these boring stamps can be a lot of fun.  Once upon a time I spent way too much money on a bunch of Gindl Austrian flyspecking catalogues, but now I can look forward to having a great time searching through stamps that used to be much less interesting to me.



Ryan

For those wondering about this, it's a pane from an early UK Prestige Booklet and has considerable value to Machin collectors because the bottom right 1/2p stamp with a single phosphor bar on the left side is only available from this pane - for those who try to collect all the Machin varieties, that was an unusual thing back in 1972 and there's quite a bit of demand for it.  Nowadays, it seems like virtually every booklet has something in it that can only be found in that particular booklet, but back then, they didn't try to bamboozle you at every opportunity like they do now (ha ha).

I have a copy of this booklet as well and got it for rather a steal.  These older booklets with no selvedge around the stamps very often had panes which were poorly trimmed and the stamps would have short (or no) perforation teeth on one or more sides of the pane.  The catalogues specifically list this 1/2p stamp with a demand that the perfs be in good condition.  I found an eBay listing years ago where the seller showed only an image of the cover and nobody was willing to put in a bid without seeing the magic pane - I took a stab, put in a lowball bid, was the only bidder, and when the booklet got to me I was very happy to find a real nice copy of that pane.  I think the postage cost me about as much as the booklet, it had a low starting bid.

My phone did a poor job of capturing the colours accurately, but it does at least give you a look at the phosphor bars - all these 1/2p stamps have a bar on each side with the exception of the lower right stamp, which is the uncommon left sidebar copy that the Machin collectors want.



Here's the booklet to look for, in case you want to try your luck like I did.



Ryan

THANK YOU for the tip about the Austrian specialty catalog, Ryan , I’ll add that to my used books wishlist. 

Those Austrian costumes are a gold mine for varieties and it’s also nice that they are inexpensive. One of the reasons I decided to sell off about a third of my collections was so I’d have more time to study definitive issues. Of course the Irish overprints and the first issue are my primary interest, but the first Finland Helsinki Lions issue is fascinating, and, while it’s not flyspecking, I am fond of the Danish advertising pairs and I’m just starting to learn about Bermuda Key Plates and the Venezuelan Escuela issues. And - believe it or not - I don’t mind going through a bag of USA flags hunting for forgeries, misperfs and plate number coils. There are just not enough hours in the day to putter on all my favorite definitive issues!