POSTAGE STAMPS
(1923)

This page was last updated
04-Mar-2023 02:59

MICHEL 317 A
REGULAR ISSUE NUMBER IN CIRCLE WITH ROSETTE

The design of stamps Mi 313 to 330 are referred to as 'Basket lid' or denomination in circle with rosette. The stamps are printed typography on waffle watermarked paper and most of them were produced either flat plate printing or rotary press printing. In addition some of them exist perf comb 14 x 14¼ and rouletted 13.

The stamps exist with a large number of errors: damaged letters, numbers or posthorns, flattened numbers, shading errors, shifted print etc, but only the most common of these are described below.

Mi 317 was produced using both flat plate and rotary press printing processes.



VALIDITY: 9th Oct 1923 until 31st Dec 1923
VALUE: 5 Millionen MARK
COLOUR: bright lilac red (shades)
WATERMARK: Waffle
PERF: comb 14 x 14¼
SIZE: 22 x 26mm
PRINT TYPE: Typography
AVAILABILITY: Sheets
QUANTITY PRINTED: Unknown

MAJOR VARIATIONS

There are two major variations



ABOVE LEFT: Mi 317 A P - flat plate printing
ABOVE RIGHT: Mi 317 A W - rotary press printing

Flat plate printing and rotary press printing examples can be determined by the size of the stamp: Flat plate 17.7mm x 21.5mm and rotary press printing 18.0mm x 22.0mm.

COLOUR VARIATIONS

There are no major colour variations but there are shades

UPPER EDGE PIECES: (Flat Plate Printing Upper Margin Copies - P OR). There are two types of P OR upper edge piece.

Mi 317 A P OR A (Plate A - upper margin only with row values)
Mi 317 A P OR B (Plate B - upper margin with bar of dashes and row values)



ABOVE LEFT: Mi 317 P OR A
ABOVE RIGHT: Mi 317 P OR B

UPPER EDGE PIECES: (Rotary Press Printing Upper Margin Copies - W OR). There is only one type of upper edge piece.



ABOVE: Mi 317 A W OR: - / 1'5'1

MARGIN COPIES (left or right) with rouletting

Mi 317 A P dgz

HAN: There are three different HAN

Mi 317 A P: H5687.23
Mi 317 A P: H5687.23 / 5582.23
Mi 317 A P: H5843.23



ABOVE: Mi 317 HAN H5687.23

OTHER VARIANTS

Mi 317 A P Uu: bottom imperforate
Mi 317 A P F: without denomination
Mi 317 A P DD: with additional denomination '5 000 000 M' in the centre of the stamp

'CRACK' PLATE FLAWS

There is a crack on the left side of the rosette as well as other anomalies. Besides the crack (HT), the other most common flaw is fraying of the margin beneath the posthorn (PE 1). These two faults always appear together on a sheet in fields 43, 48, 93 and 98.



ABOVE LEFT: Mi 317 A P HT: crack
ABOVE RIGHT: Mi 317 A Pe 1: frayed margin

PLATE FLAWS

There are no other major plate flaws

STAMPS FROM MY COLLECTION

All of the stamps from here until the end of the page are from my collection

MINT / POSTALLY UNUSED

UPPER / LOWER MARGIN PIECES - P OR

ABOVE LEFT: Mi 317 P OR A
ABOVE RIGHT: Mi 317 P UR A



ABOVE: Mi 317 P OR B

UPPER / LOWER MARGIN PIECES W OR / W UR

There is only one type of upper/lower edge piece.



ABOVE LEFT: Mi 317 A W OR: - / 1'5'1
ABOVE RIGHT: Mi 317 A W UR

HAN

ABOVE LEFT: Mi 317 HAN H5687.23
ABOVE CENTRE: Mi 317 HAN H5687.23 / 5582.23
ABOVE RIGHT: Mi 317 HAN H5843.23

CRACK PLATE FLAWS

ABOVE LEFT: HT 1 Cracked plate flaw on left stamp
ABOVE RIGHT: PE 1 flaw

REFERENCES:

1. MICHEL Deutschland-Spezial 2022 Band 1: 1849 bis April 1945. ISBN: 978-95402-401-8.
2. www.colnect.com
3. Plattenfehler Katalog Deutsches Reich 1872-1945 inkl. Dienstmarken, 4th Edition 2003. Thomas Schantl Verlag. ISBN: 3-932769-25-2