Just a shot in the dark but I know that before certificates, folks who would authenticate stamps would leave a mark of some sort on the back of a stamp so as to identify who they were. Could it possibly be an authenticators mark? I am not super well versed on this subject so, as I said, just a shot in the dark.
Not that it means it is not an experts mark, just not a known one, or one they have knowledge of. Perhaps submit an image (face and back)and see what they say.
Does the stamp have a large catalogue value, some of the overprints from that year are quite expensive.
Hello Dan and Art,
Thank you. I remember listing a SWISS stamp last mouth or so. It had a Z marking on the back. This was a experts marking for ZUMSTEIN, a European Catalog maker. I have tried searching on the internet under "Experts markings on postage stamps", but this mark does not so up. Thanks for info. Stay Safe! Paul Wilson.(OLDPAUL)
Hello sheepshanks,
Thank you for the link. I will save it. The stamp is CEYLON SC #94A used with a inverted overprint. It is unlisted this way in both SCOTTS and STANLEY GIBBONS. I want to get as much info. as I can before I list it. Thanks for help. Stay Safe! Paul Wilson. (OLDPAUL)
Apparently there's only seven known copies of the stamp with upright overprint. My cynical mind screams forgery, but I would send it for a certificate before I did anything!
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 11 Dec 2020 09:36:34am
re: Marking on back of 1885 Ceylon stamp.
Once again, relying on memory, it seems
that I read somewhere that for some reason
the printers did not check on the watermarks
of Ceylon stamps during printing process,
so that many (some) issues were regularly
issued with inverted or sideways watermarks
as the norm. It is the few that had upright
watermarks that were or are variants.
Just another quirk of the day.
For a while I thought that it might be due
to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) being south of the
Equator, and therefore upside down, but when
rounding Dondra Head we were still
200 or 300 miles from the Equator.
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".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Hi Charlie,
I hope all is well with you in your new-old location on the planet. I know about inverted watermarks on B.C. stamps including CEYLON. My question is about the mystery marking on the back of this stamp. I am sending a letter to the CEYLON STUDY CIRCLE in the U.K., as I have had no luck yet on the I.D. of the marking. A vaccine is on it's way. Stay Safe! OLDPAUL.
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