February is here already and we seem to have missed winter weather completely. We had a dozen days of 60 degree plus weather in January and no winter weather at all. I must admit that I don‘t miss it! If we feel a need to experience winter we can visit family! After two months of hopping around from my hip surgery I’ve been given permission to walk again. It is distressing to
note how fast one loses coordination when you don’t use your leg for two months. I now have to break the hopping habit!

Stamp business for us continues to boom. I suspect our business continues to grow because there are so few US based stamp dealers who specialize in the German and Austrian areas. I used to be able to find needed items in other US dealer stocks but now can do so rarely. Depending on what we are looking for, we seek needed material from European dealers and at auction. Fortunately we have a huge stock of most Austria and German items and continuously restock many areas by reacquiring stamps from our long time customers who have decided it is time to sell. We also receive a steady flow of selling offers through the internet. (I suspect that there are more philatelic transactions these days now on the internet than in all other venues combined.).

This month we updated our Soviet Zone price list – badly overdue. Our last list was 5-6 years ago. Finding Soviet Zone stamps is actually pretty challenging as good collections from this area are seldom to be found. We have managed to acquire a pretty decent selection of better singles and sets as well as many printing varieties listed by Michel.

Next month we will update our Private Post Part II list which includes issues from Hannover through Zeitz. Our stock of private post issues is pretty shallow as many of these stamps were issued in small quantities and many have been lost over time. I have not found many dealers who maintain any kind of inventory of private post issues. We sold out of most of the better items on our last list and are able to produce this list only because we bought German dealer’s stock of this area recently.

ABBREVIATIONS USED ON OUR PRICE LISTS – and on our web site.

We have been using these abbreviations for nearly 50 years and forget that some of our customers are unfamiliar with all of them. (We can tell from all the questions we receive.) We used to list all of abbreviations on the first page of each price list but have stopped doing this to save space. Here is a listing of most of those abbreviations.

** – MINT NEVER HINGED
* – MINT HINGED
U – USED

ANK – NETTO Catalog

CAN or CANC – Cancel

CERT – Certificate

CL – Close

CPCR – Clipped corner
(2 Perfs or more)

CR – Crease

CTO – Cancelled to order

DG – DISTURBED GUM

DT – Design Touches Perforations

EX – Expertized

FD – First Day

FERCH – Ferchenbauer catalog

G – Good (stamps have large defects)

G/VG – Good/Very Good (stamps have small defects)

HOFF- Hoffmann PPC

HOR – Horizontal

HR – Hinge remnants

HH – Heavily hinged

LG – Large

M or MAR – Margins

MI – Michel Catalog

NG – No gum

OP – On piece (on paper)

PR – Paper remnants

P – Poor

PC – Pen cancel or post card

PF – Plate Flaw

PPC – Picture postcard

RC – Rounded corner
SE – Straight Edge

SM – Small

SP – Setenant strip

SPC – Special Cancel

ST – Stain

TY – Tiny

TR – Tear

SCHAN – Schantl Catalog

Vert – Vertical

NEW ISSUE SERVICE

If you would like to receive new issues from Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein or Luxembourg let us know . We provide new issues on a quarterly or annual basis. Our normal service is to send one copy of each Scott listed issue to our customers. We can, however, provide any new issues in any quantity as long as we are notified in advance of issue. We can provide sheets, combinations, booklets, postal stationery,etc.

R Schneider Stamps
PO Box 978
IOWA PARK TX 76367

Office 940 213 5004
FAX 940 213 3596

email RSchneiderStamps@gmail.net

web site
www.RSchneiderstamps.com