1908 José de San Martin definitives "óvalo"

[Rein]

The 1908 defintives with the portrait of José de San Martin in an oval medaillon was the first to be printed by the Casa de Moneda de la Nacion and printed in typography.

According to V. Kneitschel [1958] 2 types of paper had been used:

Papel delgado con filigrana sol con rayos ondulados [G]

and

Papel mediano con filigrana sol con rayos rectos [F}

G - the values 1c azul, 2c, 3c, 4c, 5c, 10c, 12c amarillo, 12c azul, 15c, 30c and 1peso
F - the values 1/2c, 1c ocre, 6c, 20c, 24c, and 50c

Isn't that strange to have 2 types of paper spread that way over a whole set of definitves????

[Rein]

Not just Kneitschel has this distribution. Mello Teggia and G. Jalil simply follow Kneitschel.

Only Samuel Klass [1970] assigned both types of paper to both the 2c, 3c, 4c, 5c, 10c, 12c azul, 24c and 30c!

And mixing up the two types! The "delgado, rayos ondulados" issued by 20.02.1908 [including the 1/2c, 1c ocre, 6c, 20c and 50c] and the "mediano, rayos rectos" issued in Febrero-Marzo 1909 [including the 1c azul, 12c naranja and the 1peso]

Looking at the dates of issue:

1/2c 05.10.1909
1c ocre 15.06.1909
6c 15.08.1909
20c 19.10.1909
24c 20.11.1909
50c 12.06.1909

compared with the

1c azul 29.12.1908
2c 20.08.1908
3c 08.01.1909
4c 29.12.1908
5c 29.02.1908
10c 20.01.1909
12c naranja 19.12.1908
12c azul 10.02.1909
15c 22.07.1908
30c 11.01.1909

the border-line seems to be in June 1909!!

So far, I think that Kneitschel was right! if there exist some values on both types of paper the difference in price should be enormous!

[Rein]

The 1911 Labrador that was issued a few years later than the "Ovalo" is supposed to have 2 German papers with watermark sun and 2 papers with hexagonals - one German and one Italian....

Just as with these Ovals we can ask ourselves - what is certain about all this? Do we have evidence from the archives about it???

Kneitschel [1958] refers to

1911 - papel alemán delgado. Filigrana sol con rayos ondulados [G]
1911 - papel alemán mediano. Filigrana sol con rayos rectos [F]

exactly like is was for the Ovals!

But then

1912 - papel alemán. Filigrana hexágonos, de lineas borrosos
1915 - papel italiano. Filigrana hexágonos nitidos, de lineas más delgados [J]

Even going further into the future we know that the 1916 Independence set was only issued with this Italian paper.

So it is obvious to study that type of paper carefully and try to describe it. This is the chronological order in which I did it and the results appear to give a feed-back for the Ovals as well!

As to the surface of the 1916 stamps, it reminds us of the 1948 Italian paper referred to by us as rayos rectos nitidos! The lines [of the hexagonals] are clearly visible and contrasting with the "fields" using a magnifying glass from close distance; at the back of the stamp the fields are yellowish and rather smooth, the lines are felt-like and its fibres seem to stand loose/apart resulting in more transparant lines. At the front the surface is somewhat rough and where the lines are the surface seems thinner and affected.

The German paper with hexagonals have the hexagonals visible from some distance just as the Italian does although sometimes it hardly shows at all. Using the magnifying glass from a close distance at the back of the stamp the contrast between the lines and the fields is weak if present at all! The surface of the back is very even and smooth - giving the idea we are dealing with the felt-side and not the wire-side; the distribution/spread of fibres does not seem to change or stop at the lines; the transparency of the lines is weak and the fibres do not stand apart; mostly we can see a vague hue of minute black dots spread allover the surface - this smoothness is at times not present at all and the surface can be rather rough showing no lines at all when watching it from a short distance. I would not be surprised if the German paper with hexagonals should be split up in sub-types.

The above described overall differences between the Italian paper [felt-like, reminding of RR Nitidos; contrasting lines] and the German papers can be found in the "Sol con Rayos" of both the Ovals and the Labradors as well!!!!!!

I would tend to suggest the supposed papel delgado is German and the supposed mediano is Italian!!!!!!

[Rein]

About time to show the rayos ondulados:











The wavy rays are clear enough!

[Rein]

And about time to show the rayos rectos:









And also the straight rays are clear enough! Although one ray of the 1c might seem to be wavy as well

[Rein]

The dates of issue in Kneitschel correspond with those in DeLuca!

However, DeLuca also gives the first delivery dates and the spread of distribution over the years! From the distribution data you may get the impression that most of them had been printed in MORE than ONE run for both the Rayos Ondulados and the Rayos Rectos ....

How did they keep the types of paper separate??? And WHY!!!!?????

Rayos Ondulados:

2c first delivery 15.02.1908 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: 27.5/36.5/7.0/40.1/--
3c first delivery 07.01.1909 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: --/2.1/0.3/2.1/--
4c first delivery 18.12.1908 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: 0.2/0.9/--/1.0/--
5c first delivery 13.02.1908 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: 80.5/10.5/2.9/93.8/--
10c first delivery 28.07.1908 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: --/3.55/0.55/3.9/--
12c first delivery 24.11.1908 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: 1.85/6.25/1.85/7.25/--

all in millions of stamps!

to be continued ...

[Rein]

Rayos Ondulados:

15c first delivery 16.05.1908 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: 0.35/0.35/0.1/0.35/0.55
30c first delivery 09.12.1908 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: 0.1/0.5/0.1/0.45/--
1p first delivery 20.11.1908 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: --/0.025/0.05/0.145/--

all in millions of stamps!

to be continued ...

[Rein]

Rayos Rectos:

1/2c first delivery 28.07.1909 * - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: --/1.9/1.2/4.0/--
1c first delivery 12.06.1909 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: --/6.75/2.9/13.85/--
6c first delivery 24.07.1909 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: --/0.75/0.05/0.35/0.6
20c first delivery 24.08.1909 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: --/0.25/0.1/0.45/--
24c first delivery 20.11.1909 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: --/0.2/0.05/0.4/--
50c first delivery 12.06.1909 - distribution 1908/1909/1910/1911/1912: --/0.4/0.15/0.75/--

all in millions of stamps!

* DeLuca has 1908 here,but that must be a typo!

to be continued ...

[Rein]

Bearing in mind that in 1910 the Centennial stamp had played the role of definitives, the momentum for at least the stamps with Rayos Rectos lies in 1911! To a lesser extent goes the same for the Rayos Ondulados!

We might conclude from this that the Post Office did not keep enormous loads of stamps in the ware houses to be used after the Centennial but re-ordered stamps from the Casa de Moneda in 1911. Also the first Casa de Moneda printed stamps of the next set of definitives "Labrador" did only arrive at the counters on 04.12.1911! Not counting the recess 5c and 12c

to be continued ....

[Rein]

As José Merlo has found in the Casa de Moneda archives the typographed Labrador stamps of 1911 had been printed on paper bought from Schadd & Körtelung in Hamburg, in sheets sized 49x57cm, weighing 60 grams /square meter, each printing sheet yielding 4 counter sheets of 100 stamps.

There were two papers. The thinner one with the so-called rayos ondulados and the thicker with the rayos rectos.

As we have the same two papers with their watermarks in the José de San Martin "en ovalo" series we can easily assume that these papers have the same origin.

Altogether. three series of stamps are involved now!

1908-1911 En Ovalo
1911 Sarmiento
and
1911 Labrador!

to be continued ...

[Rein]

The 1911 Death of Sarmiento stamps have two different paper meshes:

- density 30/20 = Granulado
- density 24/22 = Tela

viewtopic.php?f=137&t=5250

as I said in the previous the Rayos Rectos is present in the "En Ovalo" and in the Labrador, so we may have to look out for both types of paper there as well!

Having explained that most likely in 1911 - the year of the Sarmiento stamp! - new printings had been made for all values with Rayos Rectos, we can expect the Tela for all of them!!

to be continued ....

[Rein]

Having studied my copies of the "En Ovalo" I found the following distribution:

1/2c 15 granulado - 4 Tela
1c 32 granulado - 6 Tela
6c 18 granulado - 2 Tela
20c 17 granulado - 6 Tela
24c 26 granulado - 12 Tela
50c 17 granulado - 3 Tela

Remarkable is the percentage of the 24c with Tela!!! Over 30%!

to be continued ...

[Rein]

The Tela version:







to be continued ....

[Rein]

The Tela version:







to be continued ....

[Rein]

The Tela version:





to be continued ....