Yes! Thanks for looking at these so carefully. This is indeed the type of variety that I was mentioning, but I need to verify that I did not accidentally flip this image during editing.
thanks
tony
Riccardo:
I checked this item and it is not an error, only a flip of the image! I was looking forward to having a rare item, since the most common way for this to happen is for the stamp to be printed on the gum side.
I checked this item and it is not an error, only a flip of the image! I was looking forward to having a rare item, since the most common way for this to happen is for the stamp to be printed on the gum side.
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Helas for you!!! Anyway, I don't want to bother you, but I wonder how the printers controlled each sheet (for the tipographic printing or the gumming of the paper) to avoid the use of the back side of the sheet. In Italy it happened commonly: so we have not only upside-down watermarks but also 'inverted' watermarks. Your indication on watermark positions is valid, of course, for both type of RA watermark (straight or ondulated rays)?
There may be cases where the watermark is negative to normal and the stamp was issued that way, but as you have seen, the negative is a 'print on the gum side' variety in this issue. From what I have read about the printing method, the paper was in a roll. It is likely that there was only one way to load the roll to be printed, and that if someone loaded the roll to print on the gum side, someone would catch the error-hopefully-before a large batch had been printed. My guess is that the roll came pre-gummed, and this made it easy for the printer to know he was using the un-gummed-correct-side. I will ask in the Argentinean forum....
I continue to form a test beginner's collection to show that despite being a complex series, this issue can be collected by novices. I recently received this envelope, and I show here how these stamps get miss-classified today.
All of these are supposed to be wavy rays watermark stamps, 1E or 1L by my scheme. This is what I found:
1E1, 1935 and 1936
1E3, 1939; and I am still not clear if the 5c typographed is 1E1 or 1E3, as my study is not complete.
2D, straight rays, diffused, somewhat rare.
NGR, unwatermarked grid, of varying thicknesses as can be seen from the poor perforations.
The 20 pesos unwatermarked opaque, 20pNOP, which I find used in the mid 1950s even though most NOPs circulated in 1948.
2C, straight rays, clear and bright white paper.
1L1, 1951 wavy rays
and 1L2, 1950s wavy rays with gigantic RA in the watermark.
Querido Tony, tengo una nueva pregunta en tema de filigrana: Who produced the watermarked papers in Argentina? Allways the same paper-mill or many manufacturers? Were they state owned or state controlled? Some of the papers- I think - came also from abroad. In this case, the watermark patterns were sent abroad or the producers simply imitated the watermark from argentinian design? Sorry to bother you but, anyway, it is your fault if I become interested in argentinian stamps and watermarks !!!!!!!!!
Se sabe que algunos de los papeles fueron importados, y los que saben mas que yo sobre este tema mencionan papeles de Austria e Inglaterra. No se si las mallas para filigranas fueron fabricadas en base a dibujos y es por eso que las importadas son diferentes a las nacionales, pero es una explicacion logica.
We know that some of the papers were imported, and those who know more than I do on the subject mention papers coming from Austria and England. I do not know if the watermark webbings or grids were manufactured based on drawings and this is why the imported watermarks are different to the Argentinean ones, but it is a logical explanation.
tony
p.s. glad to hear that you are interested in this great topic!
These stamps were printed in 1945-47, and show very poor color control. Most of the other papers show a high degree of color control and for these latter papers, the color is a key component of the identification process. I begin with the 40c value:
Incidentally, I find that the 30cNGR is a very common stamp, the 20c Cattle is somewhat common, and all other large format values for this paper are at various degrees of rarity.
The 25c, 30c, 40c, 50c, 1p, and 2p are the values I plan to use for this topic. I have previously shown some of the 25c color varieties-for the 1E papers. First, its important to lay out the values by paper:
1. The 25c, 30c, 40c, 50c, 1p, y 2p on the 1E papers before 1945 (1E1, 1E2, 1E3, y 1E4)
When I separate these, each paper seems to have one color, and the same color is sometimes found on multiple papers.
2. The 25c, 30c, 40c, 50c, 1p, y 2p unwatermarked (NGR y NOP).
I find a wide range of colors for the 30c and 40c NGR. The other values seem to come in a single combination of colors.
3. The clays of 1943: 30c, 40c dark, 1p, 2p dark; These seem to come in a single combination of colors.
4. The clays of 1951/52: 25c official, 40c light colors, 50c (regular and official), 2p light colors; These seem to come in a single combination of colors.
I do not find any of these on the Straight Rays diffuse paper (2D)....I will keep looking.
5. clear Straight Rays (2C): 25c, 30c, 40c, 50c, 1p, and 2p; These seem to come in a single combination of colors.
6. The late Wavy Rays papers (1951 onwards): two or three papers for each value, except for the 50c with five papers.
For these I find a wide range of colors, especially for the 50c and the 2p.
How do we define the colors? This is a topic open to much disagreement. This is why I begin with an awareness of the papers. Each ink combination was used for a limited time period, usually coinciding with the use of one or two specific papers. For example, the 50c with yellow background was printed on one paper in 1956/57. If we use dated used stamps, we can establish these time periods.
I see three steps to define the colors:
1. The rare printings are trivial to define since there aren't any color varieties. This is the case of the clays of 1943, all rare.
2. A few printings are distinctive. These are the easiest to define. For example, all of these values were printed on deep/bright colors in 1943 on the 1E3 paper. A few of the last printings are also distinctive-for example, the 25c official from the 50s on 1L paper.
3. The more complicated to define are left for last. The printings of 1936/37 come to mind.
For the 30c unwatermarked I find three color varieties. The most common is this one, which I find in various shades. This is the first NGR printing of 1945, and is the most common printing for this value.
These two NGR color varieties I find used in 1947/48, and are not as common.
These are the colors for the NOP thick paper printing:
And this one, a thinner unwatermarked paper, I currently call NOP, but it could be a third unwatermarked paper.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of these stamps:
This cover, like all others censored during WW II, shows some history. May 10 1940 is the day of the German invasion of most of France. This cover was postmarked April 13, 1940 and bears French military censorship.
Here is the page with the M..M error for the low values; and a 50c and several 1p with boundaries. The latter is an incomplete selection of these very rare stamps.
Here is the page with the 20c MG values and an incomplete selection of the 1 peso 1E1s without boundaries.
Here is the current status of this project. After $100, I have added all the Departmentals that I think can be had in a beginner's selection. Completing this issue range is difficult and costly!
For the scarcer papers/printings, I find three 25c Straight Rays, one horizontal and two vertical.
I also find a few late 50c, the 50c1L5, white Zarate paper, distinguishable by the almost complete absence of the watermark. For now I refer to the white and grayish Zarate papers with the same reference (1L5).
