About our cover item
Basel Dove, Unissued 1st Edition
Research on these "green doves" regarding the occurrence of units is anything but simple. There are hardly any statistics on this subject in literature. Researchers have focused much more on the "large cantonal stamps," Zurich 4, Double Geneva and Basel Doves. There are reasons for it. First, there are colour distortions in this Basel first edition, where the green colour has been transformed into blue. The perpetrator of these distortions was a Mr. Damora from Turin. Since my investigation into these colour distortions is not yet complete, I omit these units and focus on the pairs registered as genuine pairs of number 8I. It may be surprising that we could only identify six pairs more or less unequivocally that are supposed to still exist today. This is not entirely clear because certain photos (from the 1930s onwards) in black and white from old catalogues, mostly in poor resolutions, can be difficult to compare.
However, it may still be surprising that there are only six pairs, the same number as we have noted for the Basel Doves themselves in unused condition additionally known are a block of four (private), a block of seven, and a block of fourteen in the Museum of Communication in Bern. A visit there is a must for any serious collector of old Switzerland.
For decades, these green doves have been referred to as"essays’," or trial prints. This is also mentioned in"A propos Alt-Swiss" and the Zumstein special catalogue. There are still different opinions on this to this day. In my opinion, these green stamps have too large a print run to be considered trial prints. A trial print is usually something like a"proof for printing," which is presented to the client for examination in one or very few copies. Therefore, the term"Unissued Edition" seems more accurate to me. Allegedly, the green colour did not suit the Basel authorities and did not comply with the requirements that these doves, made by the company Krebs in Frankfurt, should be in blue. In fact, these green doves could or should also be labelled as"1st Edition," which simply was not put into use. However, this would contradict the current designation in the catalogue of the Swiss Stamp Dealers Association, where the term"1st and 2nd Edition" is used for the first delivery of the"correct" Basel Doves from 1845 (vivid blue) and 1847 (grey-blue).
We deliberately chose the title image for our Old Switzerland Catalogue 2024. First, to honour the motif of these doves, the world's first tricolour print of all stamps, and arguably the most popular and well-known Old Switzerland stamp. But also to draw attention to a new brochure by my son, in which he points out the generally underestimated rarity of pairs and larger units of our classic issues. When comparing what prices are paid today for rare numbers, for example in the USA, where one pays up to or even more than two million US dollars for individual pieces of an"Inverted Jenny," which has a print run of 100 pieces, you can see the potential that still lies in our rare Old Switzerland numbers today. This is where often only single-digit popularity figures are reached, and prices are still relatively ridiculously low (if you can find such offers!). It should not be forgotten that in these large units (and not in individual pieces), lies the difference between a good but"normal" and a truly great Old Switzerland collection – catalogue collection. Here, we exclude the special area of destination collections, which are very interesting from a postal history perspective but only involve covers.