1944 SENTA, Classification of Overprints

The aim of this article is to show that the 1944 Senta provisional issue was overprinted with two different settings of text clichés, what has not been mentioned in the literature so far. The new overprint classification was prepared, so now it is possible to determine the position of each Senta stamp. The article is published in the Hrvatska Filatelija No. 4/2014, English version is available here.

1944 Senta local provisional issue - Classification of Overprints

English | Croatian

1941 MEĐIMURJE, Dr. Wolf letter

In the desire for wider recognition of this provisional issue Dr. Wolf sent about 20 letters from the Varaždin post office to various addresses in Zagreb. I managed to get two such letters, one you can see below.

1941 Međimurje, unofficial local provisional issue, letter on Wolf's law office envelope, sent from Varaždin (15.IV.1941) to Zagreb. 

1945 CETINJE, Double overprint

1945 Cetinje local provisional issue, 20/2 Lire with double overprint. Max 20 possible, only a few are known.

Strong double overprint, shifted 1.7 mm in the horizontal direction.

1944 Ravna Gora, CTO

Only a dozen cancelled are known, most of them are CTO.

1944 Ravna Gora, Chetnik issue, complete CTO with VOJNA POŠTA - 12.II.1944 - SOKOBANJA rubber cenceller. Certificate Krstić.

1944 SENTA, Burelage underprint

10 filler postage due (P1) exists with blue burelage underprint. Only 40 copies are known, probably from trial printing. Note that the same protection underprint can be found on the 1941 1st and 2nd provisional issue of Serbia.

1944 Senta local provisional issue, 10 filler postage due with blue burelage underprint,
only two are known in a block of four.

Stylized rosette pattern used for underprint.

1945 MOSTAR, letter

Two things you need to know regarding the letter below: first, the usual letters are much rarer than registered, and second, missing censorship is known fact for the last period of validity in June 1945.

1945 Mostar local provisional issue, letter, properly franked with 80 kn, sent from Trebinje (12.VI.45) to Zagreb. Missing star on upper right stamp. Certificate Vilfan. This is the only cover with a stamp without a star known to me.

Overprint error: missing five-pointed star on 20 kn / 5 kn.

1945 SPLIT, letter

Split provisional issue was in usage between 01.03.1945 and 30.06.1945 (four complete months) what is the longest period among all provisional issues. However, this does not imply that the letters from this period are common.

1945 Split local provisional issue, letter, properly franked with 20 kn, sent from Dubrovnik 2 (??.03.1945) to the manager of the post office in Mostar. Censor cancellation No. 10, Dubrovnik.

1941 MEĐIMURJE, Clasification of Overprints

Most of the literature deals with the 1941 Međimurje issue solely in terms of main overprint types and one well-known error "Hrvatska država". I wanted to show that there are at least ten overprint variations and a few additional typical errors. The article is published in the Hrvatska Filatelija No. 3/2014, English version is available here.

1941 Međimurje Unofficial Local Provisional Issue

Classification of Overprints
English | Croatian

HOWTO, Unhide content

Sometimes it happens that I hardly notice details or some hidden content. Usually, I first try with the color hue and saturation changes. This is very simple and effective method.

Barely visible censor cancellation, before ...

... and after the color hue/saturation changes.

1945 SPLIT, a first day dilemma

Split provisional overprints were done in three tranches. First set of 9 values (Mi 1-9) was dispatched for use on 1.III.1945. Second set of 6 values (Mi 11, 13-17) was delivered a week later, on 7.III.1945. The delivery of the remaining two values (Mi 10, 12) took place as late as 21.III.1945.

It can be said that this issue has three different first day dates. Or we should use only 21.III.1941 as a first day - at least when we talk about the complete set.

1945 Split local provisional issue, complete CTO on cardboard sheet.

21.III.1945 is a first day cancellation for the complete set.

1941 MEĐIMURJE, overprint on the margin

During the second printing with the setting of four cliches (2x2), some single pairs were overprinted too. These pairs were aligned to the upper side of the setting. So, in the case of pairs with the margin you can see lower row partially overprinted on the margin.

1941 Međimurje, unofficial local provisional issue, 4 Din with very large overprint on the margin. The first known item for this value.

1941-1945 NDH, Ministerial albums II

Just a few remarks about the status of my NDH Ministerial albums project (please see this post first).

Recently, I met the owner of the complete (?) set of albums. He told me that he is planning to put all information and photographs together in a form of the web site or similar presentation. This is a great news!

I also met Mr. Julie Maras, who handed me copies of the newspaper "Croatia Philately" where he presented quite a few albums. So, another great source for further info.

And just a small correction of my thumbnail list: Red Cross 1943 V2 (Mi 118-127), small edition, is not the ministerial album.

1941 NDH, Red cross sheets with phase shift

1941 NDH, Red cross charity, imperforated sheets with color phase shift are a great rarity of Croatian philately. Only four sets were known and only two remains.

1941 Red cross charity, 1.50 + 1.50 Kn imperforated sheet, main color shifted to the left. Certificate Zrinjšćak.

1941 Red cross charity, 2 + 2 Kn imperforated sheet, background color shifted down. Certificate Zrinjšćak.

1941 Red cross charity, 4 + 4 Kn imperforated sheet, main color shifted to the left. Certificate Zrinjšćak.

1944 SENTA, Proof

Senta overprinting was done row by row in multiple phases. First five-pointed star in red color, then textual inscription in black color. The process for half-sheet of 50 is illustrated below: 

Phase 1, row 1.

Phase 1, completed.

Phase 2, row 1.

Phase 2, completed.

For stamps P1, XIII, XIV, PI, PII and PIII the third overprint phase was applied.

Phase 3 strips.

1944 Senta local provisional issue, proof in block of four, positions B 1,2 / 1,2.

1941-1945 NDH, Ministerial albums

1941-1945 NDH Ministerial albums are philatelic specialties. Apparently, the complete set of albums was recently sold for 200000 USD.

I wanted to educate about those albums, but after some reading and searching I found that there is no source with the complete and consistent information. Because of this, I decided to gather all available information and post them on this blog. So far I have collected photos of pages for most of the albums. The current status is shown on the thumbnail list.

 Update:   2014-08-28 Thanks to Mr. Hughes and Mr. Vilfan feedback.

1941 MEĐIMURJE, Easter card & stationery

I compared overprints and cliché positions of two interesting items. One is the well-known Easter greeting card with the overprint on the previously affixed stamp, second is the Međimurje postal stationery.

1941 Međimurje, unique postal card with the overprint on the previously affixed stamp.

Note that the Easter card was put into the press misplaced vertically, so part of the overprint was applied to the card instead to the stamp.

Misplaced overprint.

The same overprint type, was used for the postal stationery. In this case, the vertical alignment was much better, so overprint fits almost perfect.

1941 Međimurje, unofficial local provisional issue, postal stationery. 

Vertical difference of 6.5 mm between the Easter card and the postal stationery.

1941 MEĐIMURJE, fingerprints and smudges

The overprinting was done in letterpress technique with a small, manually operated, printing machine. On the first printing a setting with horizontal pair was used, so multiple passes through the press machine were required for larger pieces.

Due to the intensive hand manipulation with inserting, moving and touching stamps between each passes a lot of these stamps exist with the fingerprints and other smudges.

Fingerprint of one of the workers in "Kraljek & Vezić" printing house.

1948 DERVENTA, Parcel receipt notice

Derventa parcel receipt notice from 15.III.1948, send to the nearby village Žeravac. After 10 days (25.III.1948) resend in Derventa post office with manipulation notice: "Please, deliver by courier" and with rare cancellation "National Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina / Žarevac".

Front side

Back side.

Note that the Derventa parcel receipt is also known as Banja Luka postal stationery. 

1945 SARAJEVO, Postal stationery

I have two new Sarajevo postal stationery in my collection. First, with the express delivery and second with the railway post office cancellation. Both very rare and probably unique.

1945 Sarajevo local provisional issue, postal stationery, type Ib, sent express from Tuzla (15.XII.1945) to Zemun. Correctly franked with an additional 4 din "Tito" stamp for express delivery.

1945 Sarajevo local provisional issue, postal stationery, type Ib, sent from Tuzla (6.III.1946) to Zemun. Correctly franked with an additional 0.50 din "Partisan" stamp cancelled with rare railway post office TUZLA-DOBOJ 108 cancellation.

1943 NDH, Labor service, two sided printings

I got some nice pieces where I first thought that someone has wrongly cut them off. But then I realized that I was looking at the back side...

Back side

Front side

I am not sure, but according to the statement made by Mr. Ercegović, who wrote that he never saw proofs printed on both sides, I believe that they should be very rare.

 Update:  Thanks to Mr. Hughes and Mr. Bokić I learned that these are not as rare as I thought.

1945 SPLIT, Postal stationery

There is a large range of different types and subtypes of the 1945 Split postal stationeries - three main groups, several types and subtypes exists. Below are two of the most common: 2/IIa (group 2, type II, subtype a).

For details I recommend a book by Mladen Vilfan "1945 Provisional Issues" and its supplement edition. 

1945 Split local provisional issue, postal stationery, type 2/IIa, sent from ISLAND Korčula (25.V.1945) to Dubrovnik. Rare censorship stamp "CENZURIRANO Br. 16".

1945 Split local provisional issue, postal stationery, type 2/IIa, sent from Kaštel Stari (21.VIII.1945) to Hreljin.

HOWTO, Extracting the overprints

Recently, I was asked what is the best procedure for extracting the overprints. I don't know what is the best one, but I can show you how I do it...

The theory is pretty straightforward: find all pixels within a specified tolerance around the overprint color. For stamps with the high difference between the base and the overprint color this will work just fine. However, in practice you will get stamps where the base and the overprint color overlaps to a certain extent.

The base stamp with black overprint and its extraction with 50% and a 20% tolerances.

In the case above, you can see that the black color is contained in the base stamp too, so the difference between the colors is not sufficiently large to extract the overprint easily. At 50% tolerance a lot of the base stamp remains while at 20% tolerance (where the base stamp disappears) a lot of the overprint is missing.

The solution is therefore in finding ways how we can increase the color difference. One way is to experiment with the hue and saturation.

The base stamp with different hue and saturation changes. The last one is the most suitable.

Thus, we can get an image with greater color contrast and the extraction of the overprint becomes relatively trivial.

Extraction of black overprint with 20% tolerance.

1945 SARAJEVO, Postal stationery

Recently I was at the Pula flea market where I found nice Sarajevo postal stationery.

1945 Sarajevo local provisional issue, postal stationery, type IIb, sent from Bosanski Šamac (12.IX.1945) to Gradačac.

1945 Sarajevo local provisional issue, postal stationery, type Ia, sent from Teslić (15.III.1946) to Gradačac. Correctly franked with an additional 0.50 din "Partisan" stamp affixed upside down.

The difference between the Type I and II and between their subtypes a and b.