Indonesian definitives on uncoated paper reprinted ...

[Rein]

My first example - and what I thought to be the only one - was an Argentina definitive stamp of the late 1960-ies:





Also clearly visible the RA of the watermark - RA instead of AЯ!!!!

[Rein]

Having bought some Indonesian stamps on a fair yesterday, I found to my great surprise that I had complete overlooked an other Indonesian miracle!

The usage of coated paper with the gum applied to the coating! Not just by mistake - as in the case of the Argentina stamp shown above - but problaby on purpose in an attempt NOT to change the overall appearance of the definitives while using a different type of paper now when reprinting and not having the original type of paper. As least that is what it looks like!

[Rein]

The 1969 Pelita set is involved!

Uncoated paper:





Coated paper with gum applied - the back is shiny:

[Rein]

Uncoated paper:





Coated paper with gum applied - the back is shiny:

[Rein]

Uncoated paper:





Coated paper with gum applied - the back is shiny:

[Rein]

Uncoated paper:





Coated paper with gum applied - the back is shiny:

[Rein]

Uncoated paper:





Coated paper with gum applied - the back is shiny:

[Rein]

Uncoated paper:





Coated paper with gum applied - the back is shiny:

[Rein]

You do not expect anything when just looking at the front of the stamps!

The 100rp of the 1974 president Suharto series was the first that struck my eyes!


Uncoated paper:





Coated paper with gum applied - the back is shiny:





This last stamp isn't worth a penny! But it shows the remnants of this coating...

[Rein]

In the early 1990-ies I wrote an article on Indonesian stamps in the Dutch Philatelie monthly; reaching back to my old notes I found the term "latex" used in this context!

Having been very much involved with Argentina I found a similar type of coating used for Argentina stamps in the late 1970-ies and in the 1980-ies. It seems to have ingredients that differ from those used earlier as the caolin kind of coating!

Uncoated:



Coated backside:

[Rein]

Indonesian stamps having been printed by the Pertjetakak Kebajoran since 1955 had uncoated paper used for most of the stamps in the 1955-1968 period. The only exceptions I found belonged to the small Animals definitives and only in some printings!

From 1969 onwards most commemorative stamps got printed on coated paper - with the exception of the first president Suharto definitives sets [medium size] and the Pelita [5 year plans] sets [medium size].

To the Pelita sets a few values were added in 1979 and to my surprise bothy types of paper were also used:

uncoated:





In detail:

[Rein]

Compare this to the coated variant:





In detail:

[Rein]

Uncoated:





In detail:

[Rein]

And now the coated variant:





In detail:

[Rein]

I collected Indonesian stamps intensively till 1970. Then with plenty of philatelic scandals I stopped. Not only several commemoratives issues had 1 value not avaible in the post offices [Sperr-Werte as in the GDR] but also lots of printer's waste got exported by Dutch Stamp dealers [Hugo van Reijen a.o.] to Europe and was sold to "collectors"....

I wrote a review of mr van Reijen specialized Indonesia catalogue issued in 1974 for the Dutch stamp monthly "Philatelie". It was abvious that the only reason for publishing such catalogue was to "legitimize" the printer's waste - some under the name of "printing expiriment" which suggests that the personnel of the Pertjetakan Kebajoran [Peruri] was involved in the fraude.