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Hello Allan,
In the absence of any obvious clue from the date on, or style of, the postmark I suspect the only thing to do is to submit the stamp for BPP expertisation. If you follow the link from our website to the English website of the BPP, enter Hamburg in the search box, and click on the stamp that takes you to two experts: Volker Mehlmann and Tobias Huylmans, the latter being shown to correspond in either Englsh or German. I have corresponded with and met Herr Huylmans on a number of occasions, with his director of Köhler hat on, and found him to be very helpful. It is possible that if you send him an e-mail with a scan of the stamp simply asking if you can submit it he might immediately tell you that the stamp is either unexpertisable as one or the other (Imperforate/trimmed perforate), definitely trimmed or worth submitting. Of course if you end up with a certificate for a genuine imperforate Mi.5a/b used then the outlay will be more than covered in the enhanced saleability of the stamp particularly if eventually offered through Köhler, or any other major German auction house.
Hope this helps
Giles |
