Germany #1-11

After a lifetime of collecting and wheeling and dealing in stamps, it's still fun looking at new lots.  You never know what you might see when you crack open the cover.  I was asked to break down a classic Germany collection, and since the States were in another volume, the book started with the 1872 eagles.  There are two main varieties here: small shield (coat of arms) and large shield.  Surprisingly, the collector had identified them all properly, so here is the complete first issue of Germany:



It's #1 to #11, small shield, and the collector did a good job of picking fine+ examples of all his stamps; these have all perfs intact, no markings on back, minimal hinge marks and no thins.  The Scott catalog (2021) decided not to add up the price of the set -- maybe it rarely comes up as a complete set?  Anyway, the total is $961.25 and I listed it starting at $359.

About those different shield types ... I always think of it as the small shield has the eagle's body with a small shield on the chest, where the large shield IS the body.  I can't see any body around that large shield.  

Small shield

It can be tricky seeing details in the colorless embossing, but holding up to the light at different angles should make them visible.  Then again, with today's scanners, we can get high-resolution images on our big screens, which is way less demanding than looking at the sub-millimeter differences on the actual item.


Large shield


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