Today I would like to present some varieties that I have been able to find recently in the PS issued between 1899 and 1912. Many are not catalogued, which is not much to say since there are practically no catalogues, let alone updated ones.
The first one starts very early, in 1900 and they are varieties belonging to the following regular PS, from the January 1900 issue, printed by the American Bank Note Co:
For this PS I was able to find, in fact, two varieties. One is quite common. The PS without the 1900 stamp.
It is not known exactly how many pieces were issued this way, but it is possible that there were 24,000 in total. The ABN Sales Books contains interesting data about it: The order for the printing of these pieces arrived at the ABN on March 10, 1900. Venezuela asked for 100,000 plain postcards and 20,000 with paid reply (so called “Double”). After making the modifications to the matrix of the cards that the ABN made for June 1899 issue, 24,000 single cards and 6,000 with paid reply were printed on June 7, 1900. The rest of the batch was printed two weeks later, on June 21.
There is no concrete evidence that the 24,000 single cards mentioned above are the ones without the 1900 stamp, but it is a possibility. The so far known archives of the ABN do not give an account of when or how many pieces were actually not overprinted.
The following variety also belongs to this issue and is also related to the overprint. This time it is a displaced overprint. Usually the placement of the overprint -which was placed after the initial printing of the card- had a margin of error of aprox., 1mm on the right or left. In the next error we see that the displacement was visibly larger.
From this issue we move on to the January 1911 issue, the first illustrated issue, both horizontally and vertically. In both versions we can find two inks evidently different from each other.
In the one illustrated vertically, the color carmine seems to be more common and in the one illustrated horizontally, the color red wine seems to be more common. Below is a comparison of the colors found:
In this same issue we found another variety, which I learned about thanks to Wayne Menuz, editor of the Postal Stationery magazine. We can find it in the card illustrated horizontally and it shows the center with a slightly different color. It requires attention in the comparison to be able to differentiate the colors.
After seeing Wayne Menuz’s piece, I was lucky enough to find a second piece so far, I have recorded only two of this variety, and they are the ones shown below.
Finally, the March 1912 issue. In this one we find some pieces that have been identified as varieties but I am not quite sure if they are or if, on the contrary, they are transfers.
These are the pieces where the indicia includes the printer’s imprint below.
A similar variety that no one has ever reported before, is similar to the previous one but instead of showing the full imprint of the printer, it only shows traces of it, as if it had been repaired on the lithographic plate.
Below are three images showing the “regular” piece without an imprint, a piece with the imprint and a last one with a partial imprint.
Some Curiosities
Recently, a philatelist colleague of mine, Carlos Alberto Camacho Castellanos, pointed out to me a very nice gazapo in the horizontally illustrated PS of the January 1911 issue.
In this PS, the illustration is an allegory to independence where a chariot pulled by two horses and surrounded by six muses is shown. The coat of arms of Venezuela can be seen on the chariot but, intriguingly, it differs from the coat of arms shown on the reverse of the piece.
In the first one, the horse runs to the right of the observer, while on the other hand it runs to the left. This did not happen in the PS with vertical illustration, which also presents a coat of arms, but this time it coincides with the one shown on its reverse.
Here’s a picture of both pieces.
That’s all for now. Before leaving, I’d like to ask you that if among your pieces you have other varieties issued during this period that have not been mentioned here, please let me know!
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