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Post by Definitively Stamps on Mar 4, 2023 23:06:57 GMT
A new arrival that I purchased from a seller in Florida is this double circle with Meiji year 27, August 29, 1894. The lettering is without serifs which makes it X-2 in the Koban monograph from the ISJP. It is a clean full strike, on-piece, over a 5 sen U Koban, Sc. no. 74 and a 10 sen new Koban, Sc. no. 79. I am featuring the postmark rather than the stamps so forgive me that they are upside down.
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Post by Definitively Stamps on Mar 18, 2023 0:13:44 GMT
These arrived almost a week and a half ago but I have been down for the count with a kidney stone and the surgical aftermath. There are some interesting stamps in this lot that I will look at in more detail as I move along in this thread.
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Post by Definitively Stamps on Mar 18, 2023 0:24:45 GMT
Looking at the above group in more detail, I separated out these two stamps because they are forgeries produced by Wada Kotaro. They are easily recognized by the rather too-good-to-be-true black "postmark" that doesn't quite reach the edge of stamp. This one below, however, I needed a little help on which I received from Ken with the Japanese Philately Facebook page. He thinks it is a Spiro forgery. It was suspect to me just because of the crude over-inked appearance of the stamp so I am glad I asked. The difficulty for me is the bota postmark looks legitimate. This type of postmark would have been used for international mail and is called a blank or white cross.
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Post by Definitively Stamps on Mar 18, 2023 0:35:23 GMT
The above, as far as I can tell, are the only forgeries. There are some otherwise interesting cancels such as this postage due mark, which is the same or similar to one I posted above. It is the maroon 1 sen stamp second from the left in the scan in this post: tedtalksstamps.proboards.com/post/763This is 先拂又ハ不足 "Saki-Barai mata wa Fu-Soku" postage due marking on a 2 sen Violet, Sc. no. 69.
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Post by Definitively Stamps on Mar 18, 2023 0:51:02 GMT
This 5 sen brown, Sc. no. 59 has a crossroads bota, used for international mail and a pre-cursor to the Roman Letter postmarks. A more complete version of this postmark is on a similar 5 sen brown that was recently for sale on eBay. Here is an image I pilfered from the now completed sale:
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Post by Definitively Stamps on Mar 18, 2023 0:55:50 GMT
This will be a nice addition to my growing collection of Kobans with bota cancels. It is a 10 sen blue, Sc. No. 62 with a green star/asterisk bota cancel, used for a limited time period in Tokyo from 1878 to 1880. I again have to thank Ken with Japanese Philately for helping me with this as none of my recently purchased resources allowed me to identify whether this was a legitimate postmark.
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Post by Definitively Stamps on Mar 18, 2023 1:00:04 GMT
Here is a final stamp that I selected from the lot that I really liked. It is Sc. no. 61, the 8 sen violet brown (I think of this color as more eggplant or plum) which has to be one of my favorite colors of all of the Kobans, with a Yokohama bota cancel. Yes, the big Y literally stands for Yokohama and it was again used for cancelling outgoing foreign mail.
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Post by Definitively Stamps on Mar 24, 2023 10:41:02 GMT
Last weekend I attended the KPS (Kent Philatelic Society) Stamp Show here in Grand Rapids,MI. I was hoping to find a Japan collection or two but, unfortunately, some dealers stayed away due to bad weather and the dealers that were there didn't have any collections for sale but they did have a individual sets and stamps for sale so that is where I spent my time. The Japanese specialized catalogue for Kobans has really opened up a lot of collecting avenues for me so I looked for perforation and varieties and simply bought all the inexpensive Kobans I could find. Most were priced well below catalogue value. I haven't looked at these stamps in detail yet but here are some that I picked up. The 4 sen blue-green on the left, though damaged, has an Osaka bota cancel so I grabbed it, despite being damaged, and because it was also priced accordingly. The three, 1 sen maroon stamps in the center all seem to be a perforation variety that I don't have in my collection.. Some of these will be duplicates for me which I may attempt to sell myself at a later date.
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Post by Definitively Stamps on Apr 16, 2023 20:17:17 GMT
I have had a pile of covers on my desk for more than a month now, most of them are from eBay sellers and they have been laying there because I am a bit backlogged after my February and March buying spree and also I have been down for the count for a lot of February and March with a kidney stone. I have also been doing other things with stamps that have sidetracked me away from Kobans. These are several individual stamps that I purchased from a seller in Australia whom I have bought from previously. All are roman letter postmarks and they are here in date order. From left to right, we have a 5 sen U Koban (U kobans are 3 stamps issued in UPU colors) with a Medium Circle 4 figure year postmark from Yokohama. According to the ISJP Monograph, Roman Letter Postmarks of Japan, the earliest know use of this postmark is 5.28.1889, so this one is also pretty early with a date of March 16, 1890. The JSCA catalogue no. is 80-Jk which is a light bluish-grey and this one is perf. 13. The middle stamp is also 80-Jk and despite being a lighter color, I believe is is the same light bluish-grey but this time, perf. 12 which are two varieties of this stamp. The postmark this time is a medium single circle, 2 figure year, August 1, 1899 from Nagasaki, a city postmark that I did not have until now. Finally, a 4 sen New Koban, olive-bistre 83-Ja.,perf.12 also with a medium single circle, 2 figure year postmark, October 25, 1901 from Yokohama. These are all nice, almost complete SON strikes with legible dates and cities.
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Post by Ted Talks Stamps on Apr 17, 2023 0:24:19 GMT
I’m glad that’s all behind you now and you’re doing well.
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Post by Definitively Stamps on May 23, 2023 2:44:59 GMT
I received this now a couple of weeks ago from a seller in the US. It was combined with a about 10 other used Kobans and the whole lot cost me about US $6.00. Looking at the JSCA, I think this is 85-Jd, dull orange, perf. 12 all around. My only quibble is that it has a horizontal crease through the middle of the stamp not noted in the auction and only visible when viewing the reverse. I could probably complain about that but I bought it for the postmark so I am going to let it pass. The postmark is a roman letter Osaka, September 26, 1894 and is a very early usage of this postmark. The medium single circle postmarks with 2-digit year came into use in August of 1894. The earliest recorded use of this same postmark in Osaka is October 25, 1894 so this would possibly put this ahead of the earliest known use for the city.
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Post by Definitively Stamps on May 24, 2023 11:28:46 GMT
I recently re-joined our local stamp club and many of the members knowing that I collect Japanese stamps, have been bringing me their dupes to look through. I picked up this 5 sen U koban for less than a $1.00 from one of the members. The son cds is far from perfect but still a nice addition. The date is clear as June 9, 1897. Even though the "7" is not complete, the backward curve of the number implies that it cannot be "1". The right side of the stamp also seems to be faded as if it sat in the sun for some time.
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Post by Ted Talks Stamps on May 25, 2023 23:30:49 GMT
Thanks for these posts, Darrin. You’re creating a nice reference.
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