I did write something 10 years ago about this subject in our catalogue.
It is often interesting to follow what happened to our previous studies. Let me summarize again why the emergency issue was printed. reason to print the emergency issue.
The General Post Office Management in Bern planned a tax reform on 1st January 1852. They decided to do away with half franking for all tariffs. So no more tariffs for 2½ rappen or 7½ rappen etc. but now we have only rates of 5 rappen each to complete the postage. At this point both the Orts-Post and Poste Locale of 2½ and 7½ were not needed anymore and withdrawn from all post offices by leaving a time from 25th to 31st December 1851 without any stamps.
Towards the end of the year 1851 they suddenly realised that the present supplies of 2 ½ rappen were not going to last until the end of December. For this reason the top management of the General Post Office asked the printer Carl Durheim. who had to printed these issues before, to supply them with an extra order for these nominations. He quickly supplied the new order by printing them- not as before- by producing a new printing stone through the reprint of the original stone but by using finally the last used printing stones. This happened once by the Poste Locale.,when the frame was strongly worn and almost non existant In this way the very rare Poste Locale were created without the frame. It is sure that only very few sheets were printed.
Now we are interested however in the printing of the Orts Post stone. This must have been so heavily used, wornand damaged. In any case the printing of this emergency stamp order was only done in a sheet of 40 and furthermore it was first necessary to be repaired,.The two outer vertical rows were completely useless so that the printer Durheim scratched them off. Furthermore it is most interesting that now the outside right vertical row was replaced with the second outside row so that one had suddenly side by side two similar types. So instead of types 7 and 8 (etc) as usual, the types 7+7, 15+15, 23 +23, 31+31 and finally 39+39 were there. Durheim copied at the left marginal side surprisingly not the second vertical row but the third. In this way we have the unities with the misplaced types. Instead of having the types 1 + 2 as expected, we have the types 3 +2, 11+10, 19 +18, 27 + 26 and finally 35 + 34.
This emergency sheet is arranged in the following types:
Although one printed only a few sheets of this auxillary and emengency issue, they came into circulation, according to the statistic of Bernhard Geiser, surely the greatest researcher of classic Switzerland, in particular of the issues printed by Durheim. He has recorded until now merely a half dozen pairs with offset types and with same types and even less covers. This statistic work is without any doubt not complete (as any) but certainly more advanced. Without exaggeration, one can say that the emergency issue of the Orts Post sheets are much rarer than those of the Post Locale. A stamp of Poste Locale without frame is valued in the catalogue of the Swiss Dealers Federation as 35,000 Swiss Francs, for a deluxe used copy as 130,000 S.Fr. the same for a cover. As far the emergency Orts Post is concerned, the value for singles is not even given but only for a used deluxe pair as 90,000 S.Fr. (unused pairs are until now unknown) and a very fine, faultless cover is valued at 170,000 S.Fr. Since there are until now many more Poste Locale without frame known (single or on cover) than Orts Post pairs with offset or same types, I think that the catalogue price should be considerably more.
So far we have only spoken of a pair of this emergency Orts Poste sheet. Thus of pair with offset or same types or even of larger units in which a pair exists. But how about a single stamp of the Orts Post with frame? How can you determine whether this single piece comes out of an emergency sheet or whether it belongs to earlier normal printing sheets? Only not long ago we were able to buy two stamps, with which you can prove that they are coming from the rare ( emergency) sheet. This is clearly from the vertical right outside row, thus as it is relatively easy to see with the same types, which has larger spaces of this marginal stamps is (also between stamps with the same type) larger than normal. Obvious larger space!
As an example we take the single stamp of type 31.
The stamp shows at left an oversized space towards the neighbour type. And at right it shows the sheet margin! Consequently this must be without any doubt type 31 printed on the sheet of type 32 and therefore of the emergency sheet and out of a pair with the same type 31 + 31!
Furthermore we found thanks to a cover front of Steffisburg a type 39.
It shows at the left again an oversize thus abnormal space to its neighbour type and right again the sheet margin.This type 39 is therefore very clearly be on the sheet field 40, also printed on the bottom right marginal corner and therefore also out of a pair with the same type 39 +39.
It is a bit more difficult with the offset types, where the space of each offset stamp types is also a fraction larger than the normal although it is not so obvious like on the outer right side. However, the pieces of types 3, 11, 19, 27 and 35 if these do not show at left a sheet margin. Then it is proof that these are marginal types, thus offset types!
How do you value such singles of an emergency sheet? Surely much lower than pairs with offset and respectively same types. Until now no catalogue has been set up. I think that one got to start reasonably to give quotations of 10 -20 % of the value of pairs (for offset or same types). Naturally only if it is clearly proven, if this or that stamp is of the rare type from the emergency sheet. Bernhard Geiser is now busy trying to reconstruct the entire emergency sheet. The day he has finished his work and published a book about it, we will be all able to place also types in the middle and every field of the emergency sheet. Such pieces (not the marginal types) could be valued as high as the others but surely higher than the normal Orts Post stamps. Simply because it comes from a very rare printing stone. Here it would be determined like the Rayon II and I light blue the value according to the printing stone and not because a piece is printed on a wrong sheet.
You can help and support this study of Bernhard Geiser, who is in general reconstructing the Orts-Post and the Poste Locale stamps. This lifelong work can only happen thanks to the help of possibly many collectors and dealers as possible as well as experts, who have stamps of this subject (above all pairs and larger multiples or singles with particularly large margins between the next stamps) so that all can be recorded. We count on your help and look forward to hearing from you.