The Blue Flea

I started collecting at age 8 about 50 years ago, and in the first packet
of stamps I obtained was a small stamp about half the size of a US
definitive inscribed "Notopfer 2 Berlin Steuermarke".

When I fist read a Scott catalog, I could not find this stamp. In the
Scott's I now have (1998 Edition), this stamp is still not listed.

Only recently, have I read anything about it in the philatelic press. It
seems that the stamp was a postal tax stamp required on vritually all
West German mail (does anyone out there know the exceptions) from 1948 to
1956; and is known to collectors as the "Blue Flea", although I went a
half-century without hearing that term.

A few questions:

1. If this is a postal tax stamp, why doesn't Scott list it? Or does it,
my catlaog is eight years old? It lists postal tax stamps from various
Latin American and British Empire countries.

2. Are there any varieties (pefforatin, watermark, printing of this
stamp) are all of the biilions that must have existed identical?

BTW, I now know:

The text of the stamp means "emergency tax stamp- Berlin 2(pfennigs)".Two
pfennigs at that time was about half a US cent.

I posted the following on April 20, 2005

=====

If you search Google Groups (rec.collecting.*) for
Notopfer you should get a few hits, including this
article I wrote several years ago:

http://www.jaypex.com/stuff/notopfer.txt.

=====

The Michel Deutschland lists all of the many type,
watermark and perforation varietes of this stamp.

Jay Carrigan change domain to mchsi
www.jaypex.com


n article 6,
says...

I started collecting at age 8 about 50 years ago, and in the first packet
of stamps I obtained was a small stamp about half the size of a US
definitive inscribed "Notopfer 2 Berlin Steuermarke".

When I fist read a Scott catalog, I could not find this stamp. In the
Scott's I now have (1998 Edition), this stamp is still not listed.

Only recently, have I read anything about it in the philatelic press. It
seems that the stamp was a postal tax stamp required on vritually all
West German mail (does anyone out there know the exceptions) from 1948 to
1956; and is known to collectors as the "Blue Flea", although I went a
half-century without hearing that term.

A few questions:

1. If this is a postal tax stamp, why doesn't Scott list it? Or does it,
my catlaog is eight years old? It lists postal tax stamps from various
Latin American and British Empire countries.

2. Are there any varieties (pefforatin, watermark, printing of this
stamp) are all of the biilions that must have existed identical?

BTW, I now know:

The text of the stamp means "emergency tax stamp- Berlin 2(pfennigs)".Two
pfennigs at that time was about half a US cent.

The Notopfer Study Group pursues the study of the 1948-56
Notopfer Berlin tax stamps and the related 1949 Württemberg
Wohnungsbau issues.

Little is known about them in North America as they are not
listed in Scott and there is no handbook available in English.

see: http://www.gps.nu/studygroup/notopfer/index.html

Blair

An excellent online exhibit of the Notopfer stamps can be
found at : http://www.gps.nu/exhibits/blue-flea/index.html

Blair

On 12 Mar 2006 17:01:15 -0800, "Blair (TC)"
wrote:

The Notopfer Study Group pursues the study of the 1948-56
Notopfer Berlin tax stamps and the related 1949 Württemberg
Wohnungsbau issues.

Little is known about them in North America as they are not
listed in Scott and there is no handbook available in English.

see: http://www.gps.nu/studygroup/notopfer/index.html

For such a "flea" of a stamp, there are many permutations! Michel
lists a ton of them. Jay has mentioned this in posts in the past.

One could spend a lot of time on them, to be sure. I must have 2 - 3
big glassines of these suckers to look over, both perf and imperf.

=======================
Tracy Barber
-----------------------
adirondack-pc
-----------------------
"Freebie Stamp Project"
=======================

Very interesting!-- I never imaged so many varieties. I always thought of it
as that annoying little blue stamp that no one wanted!
Tricia Richmond

"Blair (TC)" wrote in message
oups.com...
The Notopfer Study Group pursues the study of the 1948-56
Notopfer Berlin tax stamps and the related 1949 Württemberg
Wohnungsbau issues.

Little is known about them in North America as they are not
listed in Scott and there is no handbook available in English.

see: http://www.gps.nu/studygroup/notopfer/index.html

Blair

The March 13 issue of Linns has a "Refresher Course" article
by Janet Klug on Occupied Germany. She illustrates a Notopfer
stamp and quotes a Scott catalog number of RA5.

Notopfers are not listed in my 2001 edition, but evidently they
have benn added at some point since then. I'll have to check
at the library and see how good the listing is.

Jay Carrigan change domain to mchsi
www.jaypex.com


In article 6,
says...

snip
...
A few questions:

1. If this is a postal tax stamp, why doesn't Scott list it? Or does it,
my catlaog is eight years old? It lists postal tax stamps from various
Latin American and British Empire countries.

snip

My Scott is the 2004 Edition and
I cannot find any Postal Tax (RA#)
stamps listed. Maybe they were
added in the 2005 or 2006 editions.

Blair

The Blue Flea is listed in the 2006 Scott Volume 3 on page 162. It
comes in 6 major varieties (RA1-6).

George

Thanks, George...

and it only took them 50 years to list them.

8*)

Blair