New arrivals. Pair of Hannover stamps - 163 yrs old!

Yesterday I didn't sleep until three o'clock in the morning - I was lying on the sofa and hugging... no, not my wife, and not my cat - I was hugging my thick stamps album, no kidding! See - I received three stamps mailings at once, and two of them were very thick and long awaited, had some splendid stuff inside. But I'll tell you about them another time - today I'll show you what the third letter have brought me. It housed as much as two stamps...

Oh, and I forgot to mention: the postal envelope also brought me another nice stamp, which was stuck on the outside. Oddly enough, I have never encountered such a stamp before. It is a modern postage stamp of the Russian Federation, azure in color and standard design, with a face value of 100 rubles. (This is a high face value - I don't know for sure, but it may be the maximum face value at the moment).

Inside the envelope housed two cardboard packing pads, that housed a stamp klemmtache that housed two stamps. Here they are:

These are two cancelled stamps of the northern German principality of Hannover, denomination = worth 3 groschen. You've probably heard something about the Hanoverian dynasty that took the British throne, right? That dynasty originated from Hanover, with Charles I of England being the Elector of Hannover. This stamp was printed back in 1861 - 163 years ago! - and depicts George V, the fifth and last king of Hannover, who reigned from 1851 to 1866 (the unification of the German lands into a single empire under Prussia reign was completed exactly around this time, if you were not in the know). George V of Hanover was the grandson of George III and a cousin of Queen Victoria. A handsome man, isn't he?

I participated in three auctions of one seller at the same time, expecting to buy the whole series of stamps - other denominations are even more rare and expensive, they attracted several applicants with whom I could not compete, alas. I suspect that I was able to buy this lot solely because one of the stamps was cut in half and glued unprofessionally, in the crudest, ignorant barbaric way - with a piece of adhesive tape! This is terrible, the stamp is ruined, this piece of paper is now worth nothing, it is just a filler in an album. But the other stamp makes me a little happy - a little, considering how much I had to pay for everything, including postage. Buying ONE STAMP is extremely unprofitable and unprofitable. In any case, part of my money was invested in the adrenaline in my blood, hehe - and this is quite a pleasant pastime!

These lovely stamps have changed owners, but unfortunately they didn't choose me. I hope I'll be lucky next time! On eBay, these stamps cost $14-20, and the entire series of 4 stamps in moderately good condition can be purchased for $40-50.