The second London printing of the Sun Yat-sen stamps that were issued between 1931 and 1937 have a special peculiarity.
Prior to 1933 a wet-paper printing proces was used. This resulted in shrinkage of the paper and therefore the image is 1 to 1.5 mm narrower than the later dry-printing issues.
above : dry-printing process : broad image below : wet-paper printing : narrow image |
In general, the average width of the image is 19 mm. Smaller images are to be considered as 'narrow', wider as 'broad'. In most cases, the narrow image is higher valuated than the broad one.
2 cents
For most collectors, this difference is the deepest level to sort out their stamps.
But why stop, if you can go deeper...
According the chinese catalog, there are 3 subtypes of the 2 cent stamp.
has a retouched outer circle
the shoulder has an incomplete line
underneath the collar
subtype B
the outer circle is also retouched
the shoulder has no incomplete line
underneath the collar no more
subtype C
the outer circle is now complete
there is no broken line
underneath thecollar
Other differences can be found in the YU-chararcter (5th character from the right).
郵 (yóu or yu)
郵 The 'waffel' shape is in the A-type more like squares - in type B and C the right border looks like two hooks. The first image is a type A - as it is the 'narrow' version, which only has the A type.
In the 'narrow' version, only types A are known (early printings).
In the 'broad' version (later printings) all 3 types occur (type A is more rare)
to be continued ...
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