My 2009 Scott Classic Specialized Catalog distinquishes 2 different printings of the Germania definitives issued from 1905-19, a Wartime printing which is described as "Stamps with dark colors, indistinct impressions, yellow gum" and the Pre-war or Peace-time printing which is described as "Stamps with bright colors, sharp impressions, high quality (often surfaced) paper, white gum".

I can separate these stamps into what I think are Wartime and Peacetime printings but I don't feel confident in my decisions. The Michel catalog, despite having pictures of the two printings side by side in black and white, is really not much better in helping me decide which is which and the description is roughly the same in Michel as it is in Scott. I translated it using Google.

My album has spaces for both.

Does anyone have any input on this? Has anyone else tried to distinguish these two printings on Germania stamps?

Here are some examples of what I am referring to:


Note how the figure of Germania on the left is so much darker and indistinct than the figure on the right.

In the three 5p stamps below, the middle stamp seems to be on an inferior paper or perhaps the paper is just stained whereas the stamp on the left seems to be the peace-time printing and the stamp on the far right seems to be the war-time printing with the darker, less distinct figure of Germania. Or is the middle stamp the war-time printing?

Darkormex, check out this link; http://www.stamp-collecting-world.com/germanempire.html

On the right side of the screen, click on the Germania Peacetime 1905 -1913 Issues and Germania Wartime 1914 - 1918 Issues page links for information about these stamps. Hope this will be helpful to you.

Mike

Darrin, I agree that the website is great. My Scott stamp album doesn't distinguish between the peacetime and wartime printings but I intend to try to segregate them once I get enough copies of stamps from this period. I just ordered an English copy of Michel's catalogue and I hope it goes into some detail describing these two types of stamps.

Mike

Darrin, when I decided to delve deeper into German stamps of the Germania era, I spent several days searching the internet and eventually hit that great site. I think it is my favourite website.

Another site that you may be interested in which has lots of info on German stamps is the following:

http://philadb.com/?site=list&catid=1

It is not in English but if you install the Google Toolbar and under the "More" menu item enable Translate, it makes this site very informative. For example, click on the + sign next to Empire and then choose the period you are interested in (e.g. Germania) The stamps of that period appear. I like checking the "Validity Period" column and the "Details" column. When you click on Details, it takes a moment to translate most of the info and you will be pleased to see the wealth of info there.

Mike