Kantonalmarken im Quervergleich: die Waadt 4

The very short period during which the Vaud 4 was on sale, Oct. 22nd, 1849 until the introduction of the Vaud 5, on Jan. 22nd, 1850, thus for only three months, demonstrates why this stamp is currently quite rarely found.
The current presumption is 100 printed sheets of 100 stamps, thus an issue of merely 10 000 stamps. For these stamps as well, we have kept records, aprx. over the past 25 years, about the covers offered on the market. In this regard, a cross-comparison with other Geneva stamps now becomes quite interesting. To begin with, we eliminated all cover fragments from our computer list, because our frequency study is based only on complete covers or, at least, complete cover fronts. Further, no dubious items, where falsifications had to be considered possible to probable, were included. And still further, all forgeries were struck out. Cover forgeries exist of the Vaud 4, e.g. by Sperati. It remains to be mentioned that several covers were offered more than once over the past decades. These were, of course, only counted once. By this means, we have found 77 covers to date. If you will refer to our cross-comparison of last year, (Honegger Catalog 2001), you will find, counted in the same manner:

In this instance, the result did not come as a surprise to me. We can draw the following conclusions from this:

1. The Vaud 4 on cover is almost equally rare as is the Double-Geneva on cover.

2. A further study revealed that we, ourselves, have had, at all times, a precisely equal number of unused Vaud 4’s as Double-Genevas. Both are very rare Cantonal stamps! Indeed, one may perfectly well describe both unused stamps as world rarities!

3. One can probably say that the Double-Geneva is better known than the Vaud

4 and that, for this reason, a certain higher valuation of the Double-Geneva, in relation to the Vaud 4, is certainly justified. However, one will have to get used to the fact that, primarily Vaud 4 of lower quality, will, in the future, be traded on a higher price level than in the past. Not as high as the Double-Geneva, but still higher than to date. This is also clearly revealed by our own sales numbers.

4. Used postal stationery has, until now, had approximately the same prices asa good Vaud 4 cover. This comparison is certainly wrong. While the latter appears to be quite correctly valued, the used postal stationery is too low, some of it much too low!

5. It must be added as a plus-point to the Vaud 4, which was valid until September 30th, 1854, that it is found, in contrast to the Double-Geneva, with various cancellations. From this viewpoint, a shortage of this material may also be reached quite soon, when a few cancellation collectors will also begin to develop an interest in Cantonal stamps.