1901 Pietersburg ZAR 2d block of 4 no overprint. Is it a forgery?
This appears to have originated with David Feldman, a leading philatelic auction house.
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The fact that they have not been signed does not necessarily make them forgeries. All values exist unused. These are generally believed to be remaindered items abandoned by the Boers before the British captured Pietersburg. Many of the values were used up so my guess is that there were not a lot left unused. I see the stockcard's price is valued in GBP and references SG. This suggests that they possibly made their way to the UK over 120 years ago with returning British troops. You would need to show them to an expert to see if they are forgeries or not. My best guess based on no knowledge of the subject is that they are most probably genuine but unlikely to make you rich.
If you look in a SG commonwealth catalogue, South Africa, IV New Republic, you will find a brief political background, and a couple of pages of fine detail of this interesting listing.
A fascinating challenge.
Kloof.
Kloof's comment is entirely appropriate. If you check out a copy of the SG (Stanley Gibbons) catalogue there is an entire page dedicated to this complex subject. There was a time when you could go to your local library and use its copies of the SG catalogue. I recall seeing collectors checking their stamps against the Cambridge Central Library's copies only a few years ago. The library has now sold them, due in part to a lack of interest but also because a current set of complete World SG catalogues costs almost as much as a librarian's salary.
If I have not already made the point, Casual113's unique selling point is that he has a desirable imperforate block of 4.
This Pietersburg lot of 2d singles below was on Kenny Napier's auction. Interestingly it includes a mint 2d rather like Casual113's block of 4 above. The images show a difference in colour. Kenny's are scanned images. I guess Casual113 photographed his block of 4 on a mobile phone. The result shows a difference in colour between the paper of Casual113's stamps and Kenny's. Poor examples compicate our ability to give better answers. Kenny's reserve is R300 and he is hoping for R400 estimated, about £16. None of these, neither signed and used, signed mint or unsigned are particularly valuable but because Casual113's is a block of 4, the value of the item is worth perhaps twice as much, probably more. Remember, stamps are only worth what you can you sell them for, not what you pay for them!
Here is another collection of six single 1d Pietersburg stamps. I add them here to draw your attention to the fact that they can be found in several permutations - perforated/unpeforated signed and cancelled, unperforated signed and uncancelled and mint unsigned, etc.
