Information
sought – Germany – Portugal
In spite of many years experience, from time to
time we come across items we have not seen before and for which we cannot find a
reference in our 700 book library. We
pride ourselves on our accurate descriptions and need additional information on
these items so we can enter them in a future County sale. If you know exactly what any of these items
are and what they should reasonably sell for (in US $ or UK pounds) please
impart your wisdom. Thank you.
·
Germany – Hindenburg 3c yellow brown a fine
unmounted mint (NH) pair but with the left stamp overprinted with a sword plus
sun rays design and text as follows ‘Aussig ist frei – 16 Okt 1938 –
BEFREIUNGSKUNDERBUNG’
No problem pricing or
describing the basic stamps but what difference does this overprint make? We assume this is for the liberation of
?Aussig on 16 October 38 but we cannot find it (or missed it) in the Michel Specialised
catalogue.
- Portugal – a design similar to that of the general 1898
Colonies issues but with differences – The circle has Portugal at left,
Correos at the top and CONTINENTE at the right. There is no colony name in the tablet but the value 2˝
(inverted).
Answer (with thanks to the webmaster of the Portuguese Philatelic Society, UK):
It is a D Carlos Mouchon inverted overprint. These overprints are called 'clandestines' as they were supposedly done deliberately by the mint house workers 'after office hours'. These exist for most colonies and are not catalogued, as they are not recognized by major catalogue houses as being genuine errors. However, collectors buy these for curiosity.
