Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany - Part 1

At the end of World War II, the victors took administrative control over Germany after the fall of the Third Reich. The eastern zone of Germany under Soviet rule was then known as SBZ, which stood for Sowjetische Besatzungszone. Naturally, stamps to be used within this zone were overprinted. 

MiNr. 182-197, overprinted 'SOWJETISCHE BESATZUNGS ZONE'.

MiNr. 943-958, without the overprint

These stamps remain a good starting point for collectors and enthusiasts if they wish to set foot into collecting stamps in the area of post-war occupation. Mint sets come relatively cheap, at times even cheaper than its used counterparts. 

I always have a thing for stamps printed in smaller formats, 20mm x 25mm is the sweet spot to look exceptionally good in 1200dpi scans. Recently I have gone busy sorting from boxes of used stamps again, if I hadn't mention it in earlier posts. The frequency of finding these SBZ stamps is testament to how many they were printed and how easily they could be found - absolutely contradicts to irresponsible and uninformed sellers mining on the word 'Rare' and many amateurs have fallen prey to such claims. 

From these sortings, I managed to almost complete two sets of MiNr. 182-197. 

With excess of few dozens per denomination, except for odd reasons the absence of 2pfg and 16pfg, I soon find myself scanning through the postmarks for town names.

Görlitz 1/ 6 8 48/ 6-7N
However, I wasn't able to read what was in between the brackets, perhaps (103)? 

The search for the missing pieces in my kiloware stash for the 2pfg and 16pfg pieces ended with neck pain and no stamps. One day. One day, they will appear somewhere. 

Thank you for always dropping by!