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The Laernu Continental Issues

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Post Options Post Options   Quote Steve Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: The Laernu Continental Issues
    Posted: 25 February 2018 at 04:28
A set of six pictorial values depicting local scenes and the peoples from the different continents of Laernu. Though the stamps do not identify which is which, some of these can be deduced, such as Meriq and Afriq. There are three 1 Fillis values in portrait style, which have inscriptions on one side and POSTAG, and three higher values of different denominations in landscape which lack inscriptions and say POSTAGE AND REVENUE. As usual with earlier Laernu issues, they were printed to decorate post, rather than being sold to collectors. Hence individual cancelled stamps are frequent. The six stamps are:
     1F Pipe-smoking Women
     1F Camera Man
     1F Hoopla Girl
     3F Music Room
     5F Swordfish Hunters
     7F Music Room 2



Trial printings of individual stamps exist. They appear to be possibly laser printed onto ungummed paper, and are straight cut. Essentially they are the same as the issued stamps though the colours are quite lurid compared to the issued stamps. Note that the 5F value is is two slightly different colour schemes, and it at a point of design development prior to the swordfish being caught! It is highly likely these are but a small sample of the colour trials printed before release.



Each stamp was issued in sheetlets of 8 stamps. There were at least three different printings of these stamps. The first two printings had six single stamp sheets and used thinner paper and had rough matt gum - Type I paper.
I believe the first print run was never perforated; these being a trial run. An uncut sheet of the three 1F values shows how they were laid out on a larger sheet. The long margins have ‘Designed by Colin Edwards - Printed in Norwich. UK - 12/06’ and an email address, repeated four times, and ‘ Colin Edwards - No reproduction without written prior permission’ at top and bottom. That the stamps all had a margin and I have not seen any stamp with an attached margin with any of this text is one reason why I believe these sheets were never perforated. The other reason is that this printing does show slight printing differences compared to later printings:
     Camera Man has much more shading behind his head.
     Hoopla Girl has a noticeably more intense colour
     Pipe smokers have a touch more shading around the top of the image.
The 1F values have one major difference over the designs used for the ink-jet test prints. They now have an inscription mid-way down the long side. These read:
Camera Man - ‘Voce pode posuir minhas imagens mas nunc minha alma’ which translates as ‘You can own my images but never my soul’
Hoopla Girl - ‘Abaixo dele todo ue sou probre e enfelix’ which translates as ‘Beneath it all I am not poor’.
Pipe-smokers - ‘O graceio do ceramica falhoue’ or in other words ‘The grace of the pipes failed.’




I have not seen any imperforate sheets or stamps, but if they exist they may originate from these sheets.

The second print was perforated (11.75 by the Olathe Press) and cut into individual sheets. The thinner, rough gummed, type I paper was used. Thus there are six individual stamp sheets. The margin text is mostly changed. The one end still states ‘ Colin Edwards - No reproduction without written prior permission’ but the other says ‘ ~ THE LAERNU CONTINENTAL SERIES ~ ‘. The longer sides read ‘Designed by Colin Edwards  2006 (email address) Printed in UK; hand perforated by The Olathe Poste, USA (email address) ~ SHEET X of 6 ~’. The sheet numbering goes a bit astray actually
     Sheet 1 is 1F Camera Man
     Sheet 2 is 1F Hoopla Girl
     Sheet 3 is 1F Pipe-smokers
But the higher values have conflicting numbering
     3F is sheet 3 on side and sheet 6 on the other
     5F is sheet 1 and sheet 3
     7F is sheet 2 and sheet 5
Were these ever corrected or do all sheets have these typos?









The third printing was done using thicker paper with a smooth shiny gum; very easy to tell the difference. They were also perforated by Olathe, but this time they were printed in two mixed stamp sheets; one with the portrait 1F values and the other with the landscape higher values. Sat side by side with the stamps from the second printing they are slightly paler or duller in colour. Because of the new sheet stamp arrangements any tête-bêche or se-tenant pairing must come from the third printing. The sheet margin text is also changed and differs between the two. The long sides of the IF have the same as previously, but additionally, on another line, ‘LAERNU STAMPS -MIXED SAMPLE SHEET 1 - REGIONALS’. One end is left blank whilst the other has ‘It is BETTER to strive for PERFECTION in DESIGN and risk FAILURE, than to achieve SUCCESS through MEDIOCRITY’. The higher value mixed sheet has the previous side text and the MIXED SHEET notice at one end, with the slightly modified ‘Is it not BETTER to strive for PERFECTION in DESIGN and risk FAILURE, than to achieve SUCCESS through MEDIOCRITY’ along the two long sides.
Note that different numbers of each stamp would circulate if the same numbers of each sample sheet were printed and split up.





You can find stamps with Laernu cancellations, but I have seen very few used in addition to Royal Mail stamps, despite their original purpose.
A possible oddity to look for are stamps with perfins. This example has a vertical line of perfinned stars.




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Post Options Post Options   Quote Steve Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 February 2018 at 08:41
Do you know of anything I have missed from these stamps? Please let me know. I am still looking for a few single stamps and examples used on Royal Mail post; can you help?
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