RUSSIA 1902-5 FABERGE MOUNTED COLLECTION 2k MNH

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IMPERIAL RUSSIA 1902-1905 (vertically laid paper) FABERGE COLLECTION 2 kop SCOTT #56, Michel #42y In today's selection we offer pages from a Faberge collection. It covers stamps of Imperial Russia issued in 1902-1905 (on vertically laid paper). Those pages went through hands of different collectors and dealers. Some covers and single stamps had been removed from the pages by Faberge himself or a previous owner/dealer. Each face value is represented by many copies mounted on a few pages - usually one or two for mint stamps and two or more for used stamps. Stamps are mounted on simple quadrille album pages [very light, almost invisible grille] 290 x 240 mm, with thin black frames. They are slightly wider than our scanner so the leftmost part of a page with holes is not shown on the scans. There are pencil notes on each page (in German). Each page identified by Michel number at the upper right corner. Stamps are mounted in black plastic mounts. Not all stamps are perfect - there are stamps with foreign pieces of paper on back (most likely from a previous album), stamps with tears, thins, creases etc. As far as we know the collection was arranged and mounted by Faberge son - Oleg Agathonovich. But accumulation of stamps began by the father - Agathon Karlovich. There are a number of stamps with his inscriptions on back, showing when the stamp was acquired, from whom and at what price (in code). So it's a two-generations effort. We were humbled by seeing rather common and cheap stamps very neatly inscribed by one of the greatest collectors of Russian stamps. Sometimes it's very educating to see not only WHAT great collectors collect but also HOW they collect it. We refrain from naming this collection SPECIALIZED or RESEARCH or any other such names. We leave it to the viewer to form his/her own opinion. The pages we have (and intend to offer for sale) represent a large part of the collection, but only a part. It includes only KOP values (most of them) and no RUB values. We decided to offer them page by page as separate lots, giving maximum flexibility to the buyer to buy one or two or more pages. This effort may take a number of weeks, not necessarily consecutive. DESCRIPTION: Two items remain on this page: margin block of 10 and a used single stamp. The block is mint-never-hinged and has Faberge inscription on back. Please note that the lower margin is actually a gutter, so it's possible to identify block's position in the sheet. Watermark is well seen on the right margin. Two leftmost stamps are partially separated. Please, note that mint-never-hinged stamps of this issue usually command a large premium over mint-hinged stamps. In particular, Zagorsky catalog "THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. Specialized catalogue of postage stamps. 1845-1917" prices mint-never-hinged stamp at 200% of the mint-hinged stamp. DETAILS: This hand drawing on the first page of this collection (not in our possession) illustrates the difference between two backgrounds - WITH full corners around the values (1902 issue) and WITHOUT those corners (1905 issue). So in the first case there are two corners overlapping each other - one from the main design and another from the background (printed separately). The stamps may be identified as belonging to one or the other issue by looking at the corners with a magnifying glass - in most cases there is a small (or not so small ) shift of background relative to the main design and it allows to determine which issue it is. In some cases when background and the main design are perfectly aligned it's next to impossible to identify the issue. On this page the block is identified as the issue II (WITHOUT corners) - see below. Block of 10. This is the stamp in the right lower corner of the block. We can see that the background shifted up and its outline curves away from the corners and crosses the circles around "2". Also background dots fill space between inner and outer frames, BUT NO BACKGROUND CORNERS are seen. So this is 1905 issue - WITHOUT C... read more

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