Just for the record .

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Wilding Mad
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Joined: Sun May 03, 2020 11:19 am

Just for the record .

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Whilst studying the stamp papers used to print multiple crown wildings I came across several other varieties of paper.
Not on British stamps but of another countries issues, here is one in question :-
IMG_20210627_215951.jpg
The scan above covers the 1000 lira 1980 castles value from Italy. Rather than soak them off I decided to leave them on piece (as found) so that soaking could not be attributed to the differences encountered, under normal light they appear to be the same but with the use of longwave ultraviolet a completely different story !

Not having any specialised knowledge or literature on the subject, I was wondering if anyone can furnish any further details on the above varieties, or can anyone that collects or studies these particular Italian issues please give any additional comments/observations as it would be of significant philatelic interest, it would seem that different types of paper are not just confined to British stamps alone, thank you,

PS. In an effort to find additional information I contacted SG with regards to my findings, a reply was made by Sue Price and came as quite a surprise, as they thought some of them could be forgeries originating in Milan around 1983 with an attachment on the subject, but on reading the article it would appear that the forged ones were printed on a non-fluorescent paper with no watermark, due to the fact that they were still on piece checking the watermark was out of the question, but these particular stamps in the scan are printed on a fluorescent paper and therefore cannot be classified as forgeries.

Consequently nothing has yet been resolved in relation to these fascinating variations of paper discovered.

Other countries also seem to like to play around with the papers that their stamps are printed on for whatever reason, one of them being Austria.
IMG_20210627_223139.jpg
IMG_20210627_222430.jpg
All of which can be be identified under long wave ultraviolet light and makes a fascinating study to contend with, and that includes the stamps of good old Blighty.

One of the more fascinating aspects in the use of paper to produce stamps, comes from the Baltic state of Latvia, apparently at the end of WWI in 1918 this small country along with Estonia and Lithuania declared their independence and in so doing needed postage stamps that were appropriate for the country, at the time the availability of paper suitable for printing stamps was in short supply and because of this problem the government used the reverse of military maps leftover by the German army to produce the stamps required.
In so doing this created thousands of stamps each with a different segment of a map on the reverse of each stamp, only one value was produced at the time this being the 5 Kap denomination, the majority being printed on imperforated sheets, whilst the remaining stock was perforated, here is an imperf example of the 5k stamp on map paper.
IMG_20210622_160221.jpg
Below can be seen a perforated block of these unusual map stamps.
IMG_20210620_025638.jpg
A site that deals in the specialisation of Baltic countries by the name of Apsit can be found on the following link > http://www.apsit.com/mapintro.htm
I found the information to be very enlightening relating to the history of the use of paper in the production of these stamps.

Unlike many other stamp issues, normally, finding a variety is usually a bonus, but with these particular stamps finding one that is identical would be a more prized accomplishment.
WM.
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Wilding Mad
Posts: 177
Joined: Sun May 03, 2020 11:19 am

Re: Just for the record .

Post by Wilding Mad »

I have recently come across a book that covers Italian stamps by the name of Fluorescence in Italian postage stamps (1944-1994) Hardcover - August 1, 1995
by Giovanni Riggi Di Numana (Author)
https://www.amazon.it/fluorescenza-nei- ... 8885335136

If only there was one for British stamps that covered a similar topic.
Perhaps Stanley Gibbons should make a note it for their part 3 GB specialised catalogue.
WM
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