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Post by captphil211 on Feb 13, 2024 18:43:41 GMT
Let's jump ahead awhile to 1958, because I just got this set in. Here is the French Europa set for 1958, sc 889-90, mnh imperf. Have I mentioned that I like French imperforate stamps? Oh, I really like French imperforate stamps... And why do the French have imperf stamps? Stay tuned...
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 13, 2024 19:23:16 GMT
Scott has a brief note on the subject between France 395 and 396. Let us read from The Book: "Nearly all French stamps issued from 1940 onward exist imperforate. Officially 20 sheets, ranging from 25 to 100 subjects, were left imperforate."
Similar notes can be found in the listings for most French Community countries.
Like most notes in Scott, this is short and precise to a fault. First, note that it correctly uses the term "imperforate," not "imperforated." I'll say no more on that.
There were a few imperfs before the Georges Guynemer stamp of 1940, but after that virtually all French sramps until about 1995 can be found imperf. The imperfs were traditionally taken from the first 20 sheets off the press after all the bugs had been worked out, and the individual stamps were passed out as presentation pieces to the press operators, the artists involved, officials in the post office, interested dignitaries, news agencies, yada yada, so forth and so on. Inevitably, these imperfs began filtering into the philatelic trade with much interest and premium attached. Scott does not list, mention, or value these because they were never postally valid, never sold over a post office counter, never avaliable to the general public.
I do not know the details (I wish I did), but by the late 1960s the imperfs became avaliable by subscription through "licensed" stamp dealers. It is generally assumed that quantities were increased around this time, and the values in French catalogs are markedly lower.
I've got something over 100 French imperfs in my collection, and probably another 150 from various French Community members. I do have a certain passion for them, and I will suffer you to see a few very soon....
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on Feb 14, 2024 2:46:32 GMT
Hey Phil, where are some of those awesome imperfs you have?
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 14, 2024 3:20:32 GMT
Patience.....
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on Feb 14, 2024 3:29:15 GMT
Prudence?
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 15, 2024 20:12:07 GMT
And I'm back. Apologies, real life got in the way, but let's get back to the imperfs. I've decided to show a few here, but I will begin a new thread devoted to the bulk of them. France sc 729, Cathedral at Villandry, 1954, imperf mnh.
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 16, 2024 0:05:50 GMT
France sc 687, Haute Culture, 1953, and sc 799, Marshal d'Esperry, 1956. The fashion stamp was designed by our old friend, Pierre Gandon. I recall that he did not like the colors chosen.
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 16, 2024 0:21:08 GMT
France sc 807-09, Infrastructure Achievements, 1956, imperf mnh. Gandon also did the Strausberg docks design.
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 16, 2024 0:56:19 GMT
France sc 914, Mining School, 1956, imperf mnh.
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 16, 2024 3:52:19 GMT
France sc 692A, Gen. Leclerc, 1954, imperf mnh. France sc 878, Brussels Expo. 1958, imperf mnh. General Leclerc was killed in Algeria in a plane crash during 1947. This Leclerc design was first used on a 6fr stamp in 1948, then an 8fr stamp in 1953, and finally this stamp in 1954.
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on Feb 16, 2024 8:36:38 GMT
Nice. VERY Nice.
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 16, 2024 18:48:54 GMT
And now for something completely different. I'm really not much of a postal history guy. I just don't care about which ferry left Southampton on a rainy day in 1852. But this interesting piece snuck its way into my album in the course of buying something else. Here are all the parts of a letter posted in Paris to Chester in November, 1835. The letter is in English and it is from one doctor to another. The writing is crisp and neat, and on the first page you'll notice the end of the letter was written perpendicularly. I have learned this was a common practice. Postmarked Paris, 14 November 1835. I have tried several times today to post an image of the back of this letter, but for some reason the host finds it offensive. There are two recieving postmarks on the back. The letter arrived London Foriegn Office two days later on November 16, then out to Chester that same day. Now, in the middle of the 21st century, we are lucky to get a letter from one side of town to the other in two days...
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stulev
Junior Member
Posts: 82
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Post by stulev on Feb 25, 2024 20:04:03 GMT
Do you collect French PRE-CANCELS? I have a couple around here somewhere - I can send them to you.
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 27, 2024 18:27:01 GMT
Thanks but nah, I don't go after them on purpose yet, but they are certainly a field unto themselves. And now, for your viewing pleasure, we have the first real French commemoratives. France sc 198-201, the Paris Olympics in 1924. If you look in your catalog, you'll see there are two also rans. There were the Louis Pasteur stamps of 1923-26, but they were much more like definitives. Then there was that pricy thing, the overprinted stamp for the Bordeaux Congress, but so what. France took 60-odd years to do it, but here they are, the first French commemoratives.
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 27, 2024 18:40:27 GMT
France has paid particular attention to her aviators with appearances on stamps. And I think these were the first. France sc 325-26, Jean Mermoz, 1937, mnh. Mermoz was a very popular pioneer who was lost on a mail flight between Senegal and Brazil in 1936. Scott lists 326 as 3fr dark violet and 326a as just violet. Uh-huh...
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