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Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
"I have also made a website about bisected 4 cents from DWI.
Commmet is much requested."
You can see this content at:
DWI Bisected 4 Cent Stamp Usage in 1903
It is the most comprehensive work I have yet seen on the subject.
Here is an item from my collection:
Your close observation will reveal that this is a bisect of an inverted frame stamp, most probably from position 91-100 of the Third Issue. It is a philatelic cover, as witnessed by the lack of an addressee. Tony estimates that only about 10,000 4c bisects were used. Since some number less than 11% of this issue have inverted frames, this cover is one of less than 1100 with an inverted frame. That's presuming that the probability of an inverted bisect on cover is identical to the prevalence of inverted frames in the stamp issue. One of the more interesting facts is that inverted frames were not discovered until 1917, so there would have been no propensity among collectors to specifically create covers using stamps with inverted frames.
Again, from Tony's research on the period of usage published on the website, 4c bisect usage began on January 20, 1903. So, this is also an early cover from the bisect period, which lasted until March 1, 1903.
Enjoy!
-Paul
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Lately, I've been doing a deep, DEEP dive into the Danish West Indies "bi-colors".
Here are a pair of Sc 6 (high-res image substituted):
There were 8 printings of this stamp between 1874 and 1895 that were perforated 14x13.5 as these two are.
The stamp on the left is from the first printing, printed 15 January 1874, earliest recorded postmark 15 August 1874. It is printed on thin paper (less than 0.0024"). The solid background portions of the oval have a gridded appearance, just barely discernable in this scan, but quite obvious under magnification. This is characteristic of the first printing. Other distinguishing features are the colors, and the shape of the end of the central plume of the feather at the lower left, Main Frame Group 3.
The stamp on the right is very distinctive. It is from the second printing, printed 18 March 1876, earliest recorded postmark 15 December 1877. It is also printed on the thin paper. Most of the frame cliches of this printing were the "thick" frame which is fairly easily seen on this stamp. There are 3 features that characterize the thick frame, including again, the shape of the plume of the feather in the lower left. The colors of this printing are quite distinctive - strong rose carmine and pale sky blue.
Both stamps have the "normal" (not inverted) frame and the 5-ring cancel with a central dot, which was the earliest and most common cancel, on St. Thomas and St. Croix. The central dot is very faint on the left stamp, but there were no other 5-ring cancels.
I have another couple dozen of these 3 Cent stamps yet to examine closely for varieties.
Enjoy!
-Paul
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Continuing the search and identification...
This time, I spent some time to figure out how to scan at 1200dpi, which is necessary to see the finer details:
Now THAT's more like it! Much better resolution! (Details on how I scanned this image, below.)
Anyway, to the stamps.
The stamp on the left is from Printing 8, printed on 18 April 1895, earliest known postmark 28 November 1896. The printing is easily determined from the color (rose red with greenish blue frame). The greenish color of the frame is unmistakable under magnification and unique to this printing. The stamp is printed on thick (0.003") paper, which fits with its 1895 printing date. The central plume of the feather in the upper right corner is shaped like a club, making it Major Frame Group 5, and Printing 8 was the only printing to use this frame, and to be perforated 14x13.5.This stamp has an inverted frame, as did 99 of the 100 stamps on the panes of Printing 8. Incidentally, this stamp also has the documented Oval Flaw 3 which is that short white line extending from the bottom of the "S" in CENTS. That flaw is only to be found in position 31 of the panes of this printing! That makes this stamp one of only 2000 printed.
Now, for the mystery stamp.
The stamp on the right is also medium to thick paper (0.0029") but clearly, the colors are slightly different (dull dark red with a gray blue frame?). There is clearly no greenish cast to the frame color. But, do you see that tiny red line in the outer frame at the bottom, under the "CE" of CENTS? That's a known flaw of printing 8, position #91, which is also the position of the one normal frame stamp of Printing 8. I'm thinking this is a flaw not fully described in Sorensen (the reference I'm using). It's hard to see the shape of the central plume of the feather in the lower left corner, but it looks to me like it's not club-shaped, but is blunt, like Major Frame Group 4. The color descriptions that I used are for Printing 6, which uses Major Frame Group 4. More research is needed! laeding, you better weigh in on this one!
Both stamps have the later, sans Serif cancellations. The year-date in the cancel on the stamp on the left looks like "1900".
For the DWI 3c, Printings 1, 2, 7, and 8 are fairly easy to identify. Printings 3, 4, 5, and 6 are much more challenging. I need to get Nielsen's 2001 reference book - a 6-volume set!
And now, here's the process I used for making the scan in this message:
1. Open "Windows Fax and Scan"
2. Select "New Scan"
3. Create a custom Profile: bitmap image, 1200dpi.
4. Scan.
5. Click "File", then "Open". (Opens image in Windows Photo Viewer. It's too big to open in Windows Paint.)
6. Click "Edit" under "Edit & Create" in Windows Photo Viewer.
7. Crop .bmp scan by dragging frame.
8. Save cropped scan (default is the Scanned Documents folder).
9. Open saved, cropped scan in Windows Paint.
10. Resize image to 50% in Windows Paint.
11. Save resized image as .jpg (SOR will not allow anything but a .jpg upload)
12. Upload to SOR!
And now, I'm going to rescan last night's image!
Enjoy!
-Paul
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Here are copies of the Normal Frames (position 50) from Printing VIII from the Danish West Indies. There were 200 sheets of 100 printed, thus only 200 copies can exist. Facit 17bv1, Scott 19a.
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Here's a copy of Danish West Indies #4, the 4 Cent "classic" issue having the "3" Lübeck numeral cancel. I've seen a copy with the "1" Copenhagen cancel, but not the Lübeck, which even on a Danish stamp is quite hard to find. This example has very nice centering and perfs for the issue, and the majority of canceled examples were fiscally canceled.
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Below are copies of Facit 23bv1 (Scott 14c) with the inverted frame and 23bv3 (Scott 14b), the "double overprint," from the Danish West Indies. The inverted frame is found in 23 of 100 positions in the 2nd printing (the 1st printing didn't have inverted frames).
The overprints were struck by hand and can be found in both printings (not noted in Scott). The "double overprints" are a challenge to find, but not impossible. Sometimes the doubling is subtle, and others it is impossible to miss. This one is somewhere in the middle. In the right-hand margin, it appears that it may have been just lightly touched by the hand stamp, potentially making this example a "weak" "1 CENT 1" variety -- someday I'll send it in for certification and find out for certain.
Should you have copies of this overprint, take a close look for doubling!
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Time to BUMP!
I've been spending most of my hobby time lately determining the various printings of the "bicolor" stamps issued for the Danish West Indies. Here is what I have so far for Sc #5, the first bicolor stamp, issued in nine different printings (all of the same perforation) between 1874 and 1895:
The printing number is shown at the bottom edge of the stamps. Stamps are grouped by printing, with multiple copies of Printings 4, 7, 8, and 9. I am still in search of examples of Printings 5 and 6. Stamps placed 'upside down' are stamps with inverted frames.
Printings are distinguished by color, frame orientation, and the date in the cancellation. The Earliest Recorded Postmark is tracked by scholars, and is useful to rule out later printings when identifying individual stamps.
Also shown here are six of the eight most common and consistent "Oval Flaws". Stamps are labeled along the top edge with their oval flaw (OF). Also, on those stamps the oval flaw has a red circle drawn around it. Oval flaws are basically damaged "cliches". When a printing plate was created, individual cliches, one for the oval and another one for the frame, were assembled in the 100 different positions of a plate. These cliches were re-used in successive printings, typically ending up in different plate positions. This enables a particular stamp to be plated by its flaws and the printing number. Each one of the oval flaws shown here occurred only once on a printing plate. Only 1000 copies of each of these oval flaws was ever printed, within a given printing. So, they can be exciting to find!
As you can see, the color distinctions between these printings is VERY subtle. However, once you have an accumulation, you can better distinguish colors by comparing two stamps side-by-side. Even so, there are minor variations in color within a printing as seen with Printing 4 in the image.
I've progressed a long way from where I was a few months ago, when I felt too bothered to distinguish the color variations in this single Scott catalog number!
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Here are a couple of examples of one the most difficult Danish West Indies stamps to find. The MNH vertical pair has the inverted frame on top, and the normal frame below, which also features the "dot between the T and S in CENTS" variety. Take a close look at the arabesques in the upper left-hand corner (or lower right-hand corner), and you'll see the difference in where the "branches" separate. The canceled stamp also features the inverted frame.
A maximum of 61 examples of the inverted frame can possibly exist for this issue.
The normal frame with the variety is Scott 20b, Facit 18v11. The inverted frame is Scott 20a, Facit 18v. The perforation is 12.75 x 12.75.
8th printing
Inverted frame = position 51 (occasionally incorrectly listed as position 50 in literature)
Normal frame = position 61 in the pair below
Check your DWI stamps -- you may have one of these, and if so, let me know!!
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Here's a rather interesting postcard I just acquired:
It's a "Lightbourn" postcard. John Nathaniel Lightbourn was born in 1847 on the English island of Bermuda in the Caribbean. At a relatively young age, he ended up in the Danish West Indies. He settled in Charlotte Amalie, the capital of St. Thomas where he founded a newspaper called Lightbourn's Mail Notes. He was an avid photographer and published more than 1200 picture postcards between 1900 and 1928. They are notable for their portrayal of streetscapes, landscapes, and culture of the Danish West Indies.
This card particularly interested me, because it was mailed on May 6, 1912. The sender apparently selected the card to honor the Danish king at the time. Notable in this card's image and title are the British influence: the British Union Jack flying on the left, and the spelling of "Harbour".
The stamp portraying Frederik VIII is also thematic with the card's subject.
The kicker is that Frederik VIII died on May 14, 1912. So, it is very likely that the card was received just after his death. Frederik VIII died suddenly of a heart attack in Hamburg. He was alone when he died, on an "evening stroll". His body was discovered by a policeman, slumped on a park bench near a well-known brothel.
So the sender could not have had any premonition of his death.
The message on the card, translated, is, ""Thank you very much for your beautiful Map from Langelinie; one gets quite Homesick by seeing the old familiar Parts. Yours sincerely, Greetings." From that, I can presume that the sender had lived in Denmark.
(Langelinie was/is a popular public park in Copenhagen. It is where the famous sculpture "The Little Mermaid" was installed and unveiled in February, 1913. But, that was yet a few months into the future when this card was mailed.)
-Paul
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06:01:00pm
I'm going to start this new thread off with edited content copied from an older thread. This was posted by one of our members, Tony Gade (aka Holstein2007), who is a Danish West Indies specialist:
"I have also made a website about bisected 4 cents from DWI.
Commmet is much requested."
You can see this content at:
DWI Bisected 4 Cent Stamp Usage in 1903
It is the most comprehensive work I have yet seen on the subject.
Here is an item from my collection:
Your close observation will reveal that this is a bisect of an inverted frame stamp, most probably from position 91-100 of the Third Issue. It is a philatelic cover, as witnessed by the lack of an addressee. Tony estimates that only about 10,000 4c bisects were used. Since some number less than 11% of this issue have inverted frames, this cover is one of less than 1100 with an inverted frame. That's presuming that the probability of an inverted bisect on cover is identical to the prevalence of inverted frames in the stamp issue. One of the more interesting facts is that inverted frames were not discovered until 1917, so there would have been no propensity among collectors to specifically create covers using stamps with inverted frames.
Again, from Tony's research on the period of usage published on the website, 4c bisect usage began on January 20, 1903. So, this is also an early cover from the bisect period, which lasted until March 1, 1903.
Enjoy!
-Paul
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09:04:02pm
re: DWI postage specialties
Lately, I've been doing a deep, DEEP dive into the Danish West Indies "bi-colors".
Here are a pair of Sc 6 (high-res image substituted):
There were 8 printings of this stamp between 1874 and 1895 that were perforated 14x13.5 as these two are.
The stamp on the left is from the first printing, printed 15 January 1874, earliest recorded postmark 15 August 1874. It is printed on thin paper (less than 0.0024"). The solid background portions of the oval have a gridded appearance, just barely discernable in this scan, but quite obvious under magnification. This is characteristic of the first printing. Other distinguishing features are the colors, and the shape of the end of the central plume of the feather at the lower left, Main Frame Group 3.
The stamp on the right is very distinctive. It is from the second printing, printed 18 March 1876, earliest recorded postmark 15 December 1877. It is also printed on the thin paper. Most of the frame cliches of this printing were the "thick" frame which is fairly easily seen on this stamp. There are 3 features that characterize the thick frame, including again, the shape of the plume of the feather in the lower left. The colors of this printing are quite distinctive - strong rose carmine and pale sky blue.
Both stamps have the "normal" (not inverted) frame and the 5-ring cancel with a central dot, which was the earliest and most common cancel, on St. Thomas and St. Croix. The central dot is very faint on the left stamp, but there were no other 5-ring cancels.
I have another couple dozen of these 3 Cent stamps yet to examine closely for varieties.
Enjoy!
-Paul
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02:59:55pm
re: DWI postage specialties
Continuing the search and identification...
This time, I spent some time to figure out how to scan at 1200dpi, which is necessary to see the finer details:
Now THAT's more like it! Much better resolution! (Details on how I scanned this image, below.)
Anyway, to the stamps.
The stamp on the left is from Printing 8, printed on 18 April 1895, earliest known postmark 28 November 1896. The printing is easily determined from the color (rose red with greenish blue frame). The greenish color of the frame is unmistakable under magnification and unique to this printing. The stamp is printed on thick (0.003") paper, which fits with its 1895 printing date. The central plume of the feather in the upper right corner is shaped like a club, making it Major Frame Group 5, and Printing 8 was the only printing to use this frame, and to be perforated 14x13.5.This stamp has an inverted frame, as did 99 of the 100 stamps on the panes of Printing 8. Incidentally, this stamp also has the documented Oval Flaw 3 which is that short white line extending from the bottom of the "S" in CENTS. That flaw is only to be found in position 31 of the panes of this printing! That makes this stamp one of only 2000 printed.
Now, for the mystery stamp.
The stamp on the right is also medium to thick paper (0.0029") but clearly, the colors are slightly different (dull dark red with a gray blue frame?). There is clearly no greenish cast to the frame color. But, do you see that tiny red line in the outer frame at the bottom, under the "CE" of CENTS? That's a known flaw of printing 8, position #91, which is also the position of the one normal frame stamp of Printing 8. I'm thinking this is a flaw not fully described in Sorensen (the reference I'm using). It's hard to see the shape of the central plume of the feather in the lower left corner, but it looks to me like it's not club-shaped, but is blunt, like Major Frame Group 4. The color descriptions that I used are for Printing 6, which uses Major Frame Group 4. More research is needed! laeding, you better weigh in on this one!
Both stamps have the later, sans Serif cancellations. The year-date in the cancel on the stamp on the left looks like "1900".
For the DWI 3c, Printings 1, 2, 7, and 8 are fairly easy to identify. Printings 3, 4, 5, and 6 are much more challenging. I need to get Nielsen's 2001 reference book - a 6-volume set!
And now, here's the process I used for making the scan in this message:
1. Open "Windows Fax and Scan"
2. Select "New Scan"
3. Create a custom Profile: bitmap image, 1200dpi.
4. Scan.
5. Click "File", then "Open". (Opens image in Windows Photo Viewer. It's too big to open in Windows Paint.)
6. Click "Edit" under "Edit & Create" in Windows Photo Viewer.
7. Crop .bmp scan by dragging frame.
8. Save cropped scan (default is the Scanned Documents folder).
9. Open saved, cropped scan in Windows Paint.
10. Resize image to 50% in Windows Paint.
11. Save resized image as .jpg (SOR will not allow anything but a .jpg upload)
12. Upload to SOR!
And now, I'm going to rescan last night's image!
Enjoy!
-Paul
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re: DWI postage specialties
Here are copies of the Normal Frames (position 50) from Printing VIII from the Danish West Indies. There were 200 sheets of 100 printed, thus only 200 copies can exist. Facit 17bv1, Scott 19a.
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re: DWI postage specialties
Here's a copy of Danish West Indies #4, the 4 Cent "classic" issue having the "3" Lübeck numeral cancel. I've seen a copy with the "1" Copenhagen cancel, but not the Lübeck, which even on a Danish stamp is quite hard to find. This example has very nice centering and perfs for the issue, and the majority of canceled examples were fiscally canceled.
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re: DWI postage specialties
Below are copies of Facit 23bv1 (Scott 14c) with the inverted frame and 23bv3 (Scott 14b), the "double overprint," from the Danish West Indies. The inverted frame is found in 23 of 100 positions in the 2nd printing (the 1st printing didn't have inverted frames).
The overprints were struck by hand and can be found in both printings (not noted in Scott). The "double overprints" are a challenge to find, but not impossible. Sometimes the doubling is subtle, and others it is impossible to miss. This one is somewhere in the middle. In the right-hand margin, it appears that it may have been just lightly touched by the hand stamp, potentially making this example a "weak" "1 CENT 1" variety -- someday I'll send it in for certification and find out for certain.
Should you have copies of this overprint, take a close look for doubling!
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06:30:55pm
re: DWI postage specialties
Time to BUMP!
I've been spending most of my hobby time lately determining the various printings of the "bicolor" stamps issued for the Danish West Indies. Here is what I have so far for Sc #5, the first bicolor stamp, issued in nine different printings (all of the same perforation) between 1874 and 1895:
The printing number is shown at the bottom edge of the stamps. Stamps are grouped by printing, with multiple copies of Printings 4, 7, 8, and 9. I am still in search of examples of Printings 5 and 6. Stamps placed 'upside down' are stamps with inverted frames.
Printings are distinguished by color, frame orientation, and the date in the cancellation. The Earliest Recorded Postmark is tracked by scholars, and is useful to rule out later printings when identifying individual stamps.
Also shown here are six of the eight most common and consistent "Oval Flaws". Stamps are labeled along the top edge with their oval flaw (OF). Also, on those stamps the oval flaw has a red circle drawn around it. Oval flaws are basically damaged "cliches". When a printing plate was created, individual cliches, one for the oval and another one for the frame, were assembled in the 100 different positions of a plate. These cliches were re-used in successive printings, typically ending up in different plate positions. This enables a particular stamp to be plated by its flaws and the printing number. Each one of the oval flaws shown here occurred only once on a printing plate. Only 1000 copies of each of these oval flaws was ever printed, within a given printing. So, they can be exciting to find!
As you can see, the color distinctions between these printings is VERY subtle. However, once you have an accumulation, you can better distinguish colors by comparing two stamps side-by-side. Even so, there are minor variations in color within a printing as seen with Printing 4 in the image.
I've progressed a long way from where I was a few months ago, when I felt too bothered to distinguish the color variations in this single Scott catalog number!
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re: DWI postage specialties
Here are a couple of examples of one the most difficult Danish West Indies stamps to find. The MNH vertical pair has the inverted frame on top, and the normal frame below, which also features the "dot between the T and S in CENTS" variety. Take a close look at the arabesques in the upper left-hand corner (or lower right-hand corner), and you'll see the difference in where the "branches" separate. The canceled stamp also features the inverted frame.
A maximum of 61 examples of the inverted frame can possibly exist for this issue.
The normal frame with the variety is Scott 20b, Facit 18v11. The inverted frame is Scott 20a, Facit 18v. The perforation is 12.75 x 12.75.
8th printing
Inverted frame = position 51 (occasionally incorrectly listed as position 50 in literature)
Normal frame = position 61 in the pair below
Check your DWI stamps -- you may have one of these, and if so, let me know!!
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07:42:03pm
re: DWI postage specialties
Here's a rather interesting postcard I just acquired:
It's a "Lightbourn" postcard. John Nathaniel Lightbourn was born in 1847 on the English island of Bermuda in the Caribbean. At a relatively young age, he ended up in the Danish West Indies. He settled in Charlotte Amalie, the capital of St. Thomas where he founded a newspaper called Lightbourn's Mail Notes. He was an avid photographer and published more than 1200 picture postcards between 1900 and 1928. They are notable for their portrayal of streetscapes, landscapes, and culture of the Danish West Indies.
This card particularly interested me, because it was mailed on May 6, 1912. The sender apparently selected the card to honor the Danish king at the time. Notable in this card's image and title are the British influence: the British Union Jack flying on the left, and the spelling of "Harbour".
The stamp portraying Frederik VIII is also thematic with the card's subject.
The kicker is that Frederik VIII died on May 14, 1912. So, it is very likely that the card was received just after his death. Frederik VIII died suddenly of a heart attack in Hamburg. He was alone when he died, on an "evening stroll". His body was discovered by a policeman, slumped on a park bench near a well-known brothel.
So the sender could not have had any premonition of his death.
The message on the card, translated, is, ""Thank you very much for your beautiful Map from Langelinie; one gets quite Homesick by seeing the old familiar Parts. Yours sincerely, Greetings." From that, I can presume that the sender had lived in Denmark.
(Langelinie was/is a popular public park in Copenhagen. It is where the famous sculpture "The Little Mermaid" was installed and unveiled in February, 1913. But, that was yet a few months into the future when this card was mailed.)
-Paul
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