Ukraine Tridents Unlisted by Seichter or Bulat

It seems to be a never-ending task to catalogue Ukraine Tridents. None of the catalogues can claim to be complete. Neither Dr Seichter in his Sonder Katalog Ukraine (1968) and John Bulat in his Comprehensive Catalogue of Ukrainain Philately (2003) have a consistent policy for listing varieties like ink colour or inverted overprints. Anyone who begins to collect Kyiv or Poltava, for example, will find many more distinct varieties of ink than the catalogues list.

But it goes beyond that. There are standard overprints to be found on basic stamps which are not listed. And they are not all forgeries. In my stock I have maybe a dozen such stamps, waiting for careful examination.

In my last Blog, I wrote about the handstamp Odessa 6b (Bulat's Odesa 10). Here are a couple of genuine examples which I can use for reference:

Click on Image to Magnify

And here are some postally used copies, with low catalogue values, to add a bit more to the picture:

In addition to basic things like the structure of the Trident and the quality of the ink (fairly uniform for this handstamp), I note a few things which seem to repeat. For example, on the right hand side, the space between the inside of the wing notch and the vertical strut usually fills up with ink even when the handstamp is lightly applied. You can see this on the right hand stamp which has been pushed down on more heavily on the left than the right - but the blob of ink joining the right-hand inside and outside is still there. Again, the tip of the spike which extends beyond the wing tips and distinguishes this type from Odessa 6a (Odesa 9) never fails to print - it is always clear and often solidly black at the top as on the left hand stamp. This is maybe surprising since when using handstamps most people (I think!) tend to hit the paper first with the base of the handstamp.

Now we come to the problem stamps:

Click on Image to Magnify

Odessa 6b on the 10/7 kopeck stamp is not listed by either Seichter or Bulat, though they both list 6a on this basic stamp.  

Let's start with the left hand stamp. I am sure this shows a genuine Odesa 6b handstamp - it matches my reference copies very well - except that the ink appears more diluted (you can see this if you Click to enlarge the image). The cancellation does not help much - there is nothing legible - but it does seem to be over the overprint and contributes to the diluted ink appearance since it fills in what would otherwise be white spaces. You can see the same thing happening on the 3 rouble 50 stamps above.

The clipped side does help, a lot. This stamp was on a Parcel Card or Money Transfer Form and was clipped before being sent to the archives. No forger would have chosen this stamp to overprint - no one would want to buy it and undamaged 10 / 7 kopeck stamps can be bought for a kopeck or two which people will then buy for a lot of roubles if they are overprinted with Odesa 6b. 

The stamp isn't signed but came from the Schmidt collection with a typical pencilled "O" (for Odessa) on the back. A piece of paper had been pasted on the back of the stamp, probably  to stop the cut area getting caught and damaged,  but I have soaked this off.

Now turn to the right hand stamp. When I look at the overprint, it seems a bit bigger than than those on the other stamps and when I measure it is indeed a bit wider: 10.5mm as against 10mm and if we are dealing with a metal handstamp, that is not to be expected. I also have the sense that the right wing curves more smoothly down than on the other stamps. On the other hand, the ink is a very good match with my reference copies. In addition, the top of the spike prints clearly and an infill of ink on the right wing can also be seen. However, I cannot today persuade myself that the overprint is genuine - but if it is a forgery, it is a very good one. Either way, I could sell it much more easily than the clipped stamp! When I turn the stamp over, I find an Odessa dealer-style mark but it's one I don't recognise [ Note added 10 March 2015: Roman Procyk points out that it is a B.Trachtenberg house mark, but with the surname  abridged to "B.TRACHT"; it has previously been recorded and illustrated at www.filatelia.fi ]:

Click on Image to Magnify

So: Today I claim to have identified an unlisted trident variety, Odessa 6b (Odesa 10) on 10 / 7 kopeck with one known used copy. Any more out there in collectors' albums? Do have a look!

But you can probably also work out why Unlisted tridents tend to stay in my back stock and never get processed: it's a lot of work to assess them! 

Added February 2020: Most of my Ukraine-related Blog posts are now available in full colour book form. To find out more follow the link:

http://www.armeniazemstvo.com/2020/02/just-published-trevor-pateman.html

A Puzzling Trident from Odessa

Click on Image to Magnify

The Type 1 Trident overprint of Odessa was printed from a lithographic plate of 10 x 10, designed for Imperial kopeck value stamps.

It is therefore rather strange that John Bulat lists Type 1 on two rouble values - the 10 x 10 plate would simply not work applied to rouble value sheets. But Bulat has the following:

1077 1 rub imperforate valued at - - mint and $125 used

1078  3.50 rub imperforate valued at - - mint and - - used

I can only illustrate one example of these stamps; I did not make a note of where I got it from, but it is probably from the Schmidt collection. There are no markings or signatures on the back of the stamp but nearly everything looks plausible:

- the stamp appears to have been postally used on a formular card and has a triangular punch hole and a trace of blue crayon

- the ODESSA 10 10 18 cancel looks good - the only doubtful element is the difference in style between the first "10" (which looks slightly doubled ) and the second "10" but this may be of no significance

- the Trident looks good too. It's in the right kind of ink and it's under the cancellation.

BUT if this is Odessa Type 1 then really only two possibilities exist:

- there was a second Odessa 1 plate adapted to fit ruble value sheets

- there was some kind of handstamp made based on Odessa 1 and applied by hand to ruble value stamps (just like Odessa 4 - 6 handstamps)

Can anyone show more examples of this stamp or find references in the philatelic literature? Do any multiples exist?

Added February 2020: Most of my Ukraine-related Blog posts are now available in full colour book form. To find out more follow the link:

http://www.armeniazemstvo.com/2020/02/just-published-trevor-pateman.html

Odesa I Tridents: Seichter, Bulat, Zelonka

Everyone agrees that the common Odesa I trident overprints were produced by typography (Buchdruck) using a plate of 100. In his 1953 publication - the cover is shown above - Dr Seichter says (in effect) that there was a master horizontal cliché of 5 positions (a - b - c - d - e) which he illustrates (see also above). From this master, all the cliches were made and minor variations can be found giving rise to Plate varieties occurring only once in the sheet: John Bulat illustrates 5 notable varieties at page 79 of his Handbook though, of course, since this is a typographic overprint one should be able to plate all 100 positions as slightly different.

In his 1953 publication, Dr Seichter does not discuss Reprints but in his 1966 Sonderkatalog he lists "Neudrucke" sold by the "Sowjet-Agentur" and values them all at 40 DM each. He does not give any indication of how to tell Reprints apart from Originals and I don't think I have ever seen a Seichter "Neudruck" mark on the back of Odesa I stamps.

John Bulat lists Reprints on more values than Dr Seichter (Bulat 1079 - 1095), giving them a uniform mint price of $25 each which is much higher than for most of the Originals. He heads the list, "Overprinted in different variety of black ink" but does not say what the difference is.

Before his death, Dr Ron Zelonka helpfully expertised for me two copies of 20 kopeck perforated stamps with Odesa I overprints, identifying one as an Original (Bulat 1068, $75) and one as a Reprint (Bulat 1084 $25). See the illustrations above.

It seems that the Reprint is characterised by ink infill between the double outlines giving an overall blacker appearance - something you might expect from a re-used typographic plate with a build up of old ink. However, this alone is not the whole story. Ther are heavily inked Originals which look similar. And some cliché positions seem to fill with ink more than others. What is distinctive on the Reprint is the overall uniform darker impression.

What someone with a taste for research could do is this: assemble copies of a basic stamp for which there are no Reprints: for example, both Seichter and Bulat reckon that the very common 2 kopeck perforated is found only with Original overprints. Then assemble stamps which only exist with Reprint overprints: for example, the 1 kopeck perforated. (This will not be easy!) Then try to work out the distinguishing features. In some cases, it will also turn out that the shades of basic stamp used for the overprint also differs between Originals and Reprints. This is the case for the 4 kopeck perforated.

Postscript May 2012: A reader in the USA has kindly provided the illustration below showing Odesa I overprints which have been classified by Dr Seichter as Reprints (ND, Neudruck) - something I could not do. It can be seen that on all the stamps the overprints show what I called above an "overall darker impression". Thanks to this anonymous contribution, the reader is now in a much better position to set about classifying Odesa I overprints as Originals or Reprints according to the Bulat catalogue. It is just important to remember that in general Reprints are much scarcer and are unlikely to be found in small accumulations of Odesa I stamps.

Added February 2020: Most of my Ukraine-related Blog posts are now available in full colour book form. To find out more follow the link:

http://www.armeniazemstvo.com/2020/02/just-published-trevor-pateman.html

Ukraine: Tridents of Odesa Va, Vb, Vc, Vd

My Odesa Tridents are in a 64 page stockbook. Today I was taking out some stamps for a client. I realised that some of the stamps were in the wrong places - the Type V Tridents were not always correctly classified. So to remind myself what the four different types look like, I made up this card: top row, Va; second row, Vb, third row, Vc, bottom row, Vd. For some reason, I don't have Vb on any one kopeck stamps so I have used the 5 kopeck value instead. All the stamps shown above have good signatures - Bulat, Seichter, UPV and Trachtenberg (which is fine for Odesa)

The type V overprints are usually clearly struck - none of my copies above have unclear overprints - though they vary from deep black to grey. When the base cap does not print clearly, then it can be difficult to decide what type of overprint you are looking at. The same is true, of course, if a cancellation obscures the Trident. For the Vc Trident, horizontal marks or a line of marks often appear to the left, above the top of the wing and extending across to the top of the prong. For a very clear example, see the first example in row three above.But this line does not always appear.

Hope this is useful!