Cape of Good Hope: Edwardian Forgery

#1 · September 4, 2020, 3:17 pm

The Cape of Good Hope stamps, have received the attention of many forgers, including the triangulars, the Seated Hope overprints and there are some Sperati forgeries of the King Edward VII stamp. In the two attachments below, there are two stamps with a purple handstamp overprint "HALF PENNY" and another one with a type-written overprint of "ONE PENNY".

The stamps have been attached to the letter possibly at a later date, by a collector (they were probably loose with the letter). The letter was addressed to a L.F.Barnes informing him that no such stamps were issued by the Department. From memory Barnes was a philatelic dealer.

The letter did not exclude the possibility that they were some Department trials. Although I think they were probably forgeries.

Anyone seen anything similar?

Uploaded files:

cape-forgery.pdf

#2 · September 5, 2020, 11:58 am

Quote from Steve on September 5, 2020, 11:58 am
I have not seen anything similar. I find this intriguing.

Are the stamps forgeries? Assuming they are genuine, the purple HALF PENNY and ONE PENNY marks are curious unrecorded additions. Philatelists would have recorded genuine postal use by now, the marks are something else.

As the postmarks appear to be genuine, the assumption is that the stamps travelled through the post on letters. If they had already been marked with the unauthorised purple HALF PENNY and ONE PENNY marks, were they still legitimate postage stamps? Did the act of marking them HALF PENNY and ONE PENNY not cancel their use as postage stamps? Would the post office have allowed such postal use if they detected it? Would you have wanted to risk losing your hard-earned postage stamps by doing this? I don't think so.

Still, the 1d HALF PENNY strikes are very faint, barely legibile. Only a hawk-eyed post office official would have detected their existence. While the possibility exists that they were postally used as such, I suspect that they were hand-stamped and typed on after being postally used. I have always found it difficult to determine which came first, whether a postmark was over or under another mark. So, good luck in that regard.

The HALF PENNY halves the value of the 1d red KE7 stamps while the ONE PENNY doubles the value of the 1/2d stamp. The effect was to cheat the post office out of revenue, presumably a crime. I am intrigued that you say the ONE PENNY is typewritten. The easiest way to have created these would have been to type over an already cancelled 1/2d green stamp. What worries me is the broken double line which I do not recognise as a postmark. It suggests an attempt to obliterate part of the stamp for the purposes of embellishing the forged ONE PENNY. It maybe that the HALF PENNY and ONE PENNY stamps are not stablemates from the same forger.

So, in summary, I think these are genuine postally used stamps given HALF PENNY and ONE PENNY marks after they had travelled through the post. At some point they ended up in the hands of a philatelist. This raises the question "Where did they come from and what were they used for?". I don't know but here's a suggestion. Men of the British Imperial Garrision cut these off letters, stamped them using an available handstamp or typewriter and used them as chips when playing cards. I can't be any more helpful than that.

I have not seen anything similar. I find this intriguing.

Are the stamps forgeries? Assuming they are genuine, the purple HALF PENNY and ONE PENNY marks are curious unrecorded additions. Philatelists would have recorded genuine postal use by now, the marks are something else.

As the postmarks appear to be genuine, the assumption is that the stamps travelled through the post on letters. If they had already been marked with the unauthorised purple HALF PENNY and ONE PENNY marks, were they still legitimate postage stamps? Did the act of marking them HALF PENNY and ONE PENNY not cancel their use as postage stamps? Would the post office have allowed such postal use if they detected it? Would you have wanted to risk losing your hard-earned postage stamps by doing this? I don't think so.

Still, the 1d HALF PENNY strikes are very faint, barely legibile. Only a hawk-eyed post office official would have detected their existence. While the possibility exists that they were postally used as such, I suspect that they were hand-stamped and typed on after being postally used. I have always found it difficult to determine which came first, whether a postmark was over or under another mark. So, good luck in that regard.

The HALF PENNY halves the value of the 1d red KE7 stamps while the ONE PENNY doubles the value of the 1/2d stamp. The effect was to cheat the post office out of revenue, presumably a crime. I am intrigued that you say the ONE PENNY is typewritten. The easiest way to have created these would have been to type over an already cancelled 1/2d green stamp. What worries me is the broken double line which I do not recognise as a postmark. It suggests an attempt to obliterate part of the stamp for the purposes of embellishing the forged ONE PENNY. It maybe that the HALF PENNY and ONE PENNY stamps are not stablemates from the same forger.

So, in summary, I think these are genuine postally used stamps given HALF PENNY and ONE PENNY marks after they had travelled through the post. At some point they ended up in the hands of a philatelist. This raises the question "Where did they come from and what were they used for?". I don't know but here's a suggestion. Men of the British Imperial Garrision cut these off letters, stamped them using an available handstamp or typewriter and used them as chips when playing cards. I can't be any more helpful than that.

#3 · September 5, 2020, 12:49 pm

Quote from Bas PAYNE on September 5, 2020, 12:49 pm
I have an Edward VII stamp with a "1/2d" overprint which I have always assumed was a forgery. (I don't have it to hand, which is why I haven't attached a scan.)

I agree with Steve that there is no strong reason to doubt that these are genuine postmarks on genuine stamps (the scans look a bit "washy", but that's probably a scanner issue). Close examination under a microscope might suggest whether the postmarks overlie or underlie the overprints; but even if the postmarks are on top of the overprints, and are genuine, the overprints aren't necessarily genuine.

One possibility that has to be considered is that they were overprinted by a collector and then posted, and weren't noticed by the clerk who cancelled them, in which case the overprint would be earlier than the date of the cancellation. I have several covers with GB Wilding stamps in which the head of Elizabeth II has been cut out and a head of Edward VIII substituted. Some went through the post undetected and are normally cancelled; others were spotted, weren't cancelled, and have "Contrary to regulations" cachets and cancelled postage due stamps on them; in similar vein are covers with cancelled Green Shield trading stamps which went through the post apparently un-noticed.

Another possibility is that the stamps were post-marked by favour, and didn't go through the post - in which case the clerk might have turned the date back ..... (And another possibility, though less likely in these cases, is that the canceller was stolen or otherwise acquired by a forger and used to cancel forgeries .)

The motive for such forgeries isn't necessarily for gain. One gets the impression that it's often done by collectors for entertainment, or out of boredom. An example is attached - red and black DOUANE overprints on ½d and 1d stamps, all inverted. Clearly fake, and though the font looks right, so improbable as to be completely unsaleable at anything more than a trivial price.

I have an Edward VII stamp with a "1/2d" overprint which I have always assumed was a forgery. (I don't have it to hand, which is why I haven't attached a scan.)

I agree with Steve that there is no strong reason to doubt that these are genuine postmarks on genuine stamps (the scans look a bit "washy", but that's probably a scanner issue). Close examination under a microscope might suggest whether the postmarks overlie or underlie the overprints; but even if the postmarks are on top of the overprints, and are genuine, the overprints aren't necessarily genuine.

One possibility that has to be considered is that they were overprinted by a collector and then posted, and weren't noticed by the clerk who cancelled them, in which case the overprint would be earlier than the date of the cancellation. I have several covers with GB Wilding stamps in which the head of Elizabeth II has been cut out and a head of Edward VIII substituted. Some went through the post undetected and are normally cancelled; others were spotted, weren't cancelled, and have "Contrary to regulations" cachets and cancelled postage due stamps on them; in similar vein are covers with cancelled Green Shield trading stamps which went through the post apparently un-noticed.

Another possibility is that the stamps were post-marked by favour, and didn't go through the post - in which case the clerk might have turned the date back ..... (And another possibility, though less likely in these cases, is that the canceller was stolen or otherwise acquired by a forger and used to cancel forgeries .)

The motive for such forgeries isn't necessarily for gain. One gets the impression that it's often done by collectors for entertainment, or out of boredom. An example is attached - red and black DOUANE overprints on ½d and 1d stamps, all inverted. Clearly fake, and though the font looks right, so improbable as to be completely unsaleable at anything more than a trivial price.

Uploaded files:

#4 · September 5, 2020, 12:55 pm

Error in previous post now corrected!

#5 · September 6, 2020, 5:08 am

Gents

Thank you for your detailed replies. I am of the same opinion of both of you that the stamps and postmarks are most likely genuine but the overprint is bogus. I am intrigued that Bas has a similar stamp and it would be nice at some point in time, if convenient to post a scan.

My scanner is not very good, but the colour reproduction fairly represents the stamps. The Half Penny ink has faded with the years as is normal for these type of inks.

As we don't have the envelopes we can never be certain if they were spotted by the post office clerks (who wouldn't accept them as valid for postage and would have applied charges).