FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES
Early counterfeits and their exposers--The "honest"
facsimile--"Album Weeds"--Forgeries classified--Frauds on
the British Post Office--Forgeries "paying" postage--The One
Rupee, India--Fraudulent alteration of values--The British 10s.
and £1 "Anchor"--A too-clever "fake"--Joined pairs--Drastic
tests--New South Wales "Views" and "Registered"--The Swiss
Cantonals--Government "imitations"--"Bogus" stamps.
Mr. Edward L. Pemberton, whose early writings on Philately will always
be regarded as little short of inspired from the marvellous intuition
which led him to the precise and the accurate, wrote a booklet on
"Forged Stamps, and How to Detect Them" in 1863. Already in the history
of this new hobby the forger had been at work catering for collectors;
it was, of course, from still earlier times that the unscrupulous had
endeavoured to relieve Governments of some portions of their revenues
by counterfeiting what is a kind of paper currency. Pemberton was not
the first author on this subject, but I turn to him because he was
the best of several contemporary writers in this as well as in other
directions. Of this superiority he was not entirely unconscious, for
in his "Introduction" he says: "We have tested the usefulness of the
only English work on the 'Falsification of Postage Stamps,' having gone
through it carefully, and after an impartial reading, feel convinced
that, from the vagueness of the descriptions, both of the forgeries and
genuine stamps, many persons testing stamps from them would select the
forgery as genuine, and _vice versâ_."
To satisfy (in some measure) the curiosity of his readers, our
early authority gives some particulars of the forgers. The "first
and foremost" in the nefarious practice was a Zurich forger, whose
productions--Swiss Cantonals, Modena, Romagna, &c.--had the largest
circulation in Mr. Pemberton's time. This gentleman (evidently well
known to the author) had an agent for the sale of his wares at Basle,
the prices of these latter being quoted at "for most of the Swiss 80
cts. each used, or unused 1 franc; for the Orts Post and Poste Locale
50 cts. each; for Modena and Romagna 80 cts."
The dealer who occupied the second position of dishonour in the
estimation of this philatelic Sherlock Holmes was a Brussels
individual, whose provisional Parma, Modena, Naples, and Spain sold
largely and were well executed.
These two appear to have been the leaders of the counterfeiting of
their time, "those indeed who have made almost a trade of it"; but
there was also a Brunswick dealer who "tried his hand at the Danish
essays," and a few forged stamps were supposed to hail from Leipsic.
A couple of years later John Marmaduke Stourton, in a brochure "How to
Detect Forged Stamps," gives evidence of a swarm of forgers cropping
up in even our own country at Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, and
London, in Hamburg and New York, as well as the Swiss and Belgian
forgers who still plied their traffic. The Glasgow productions were
of the "facsimile" class, and were possibly manufactured with the
well-intentioned but unwise endeavour to provide approximately correct
coloured facsimiles of stamps which were too scarce to be readily
accessible to all collectors. The "facsimile" has no doubt often been
produced with the best of intentions by firms of high repute, but the
protecting word "facsimile" or "Falsch," or other sign by which the
true nature of the copy may be identified, has so often been removed
for fraudulent purposes after it has left honest hands that there is
no alternative in these days of later and fuller experience to define
"facsimile," so far as it relates to Philately, as, in the words of my
glossary, "a euphemism for a forgery."
It is, however, to be borne in mind by the student that in the
beginning of Philately there was not entirely the same attitude
towards the production of legitimate (if any could so be called) or
honest facsimiles, and, indeed, a writer in one of the early journals,
in proposing the formation of a philatelic society, suggests that
one of the duties such an institution could properly fulfil would
be the reproduction of choice editions (copies) of rare stamps for
limited circulation! Also in the _Stamp Collector's Magazine_, whose
proprietors and engravers were as free of just reproach as Cæsar's
wife, we find the engraver so pleased with the illustration he has
produced for that journal of the Nicaragua stamp of 1862 that he
announces:--
"NICARAGUAN STAMP.--Will be ready in a week. A beautiful proof
of the Nicaraguan Stamp (equal to the original) will be sent
for 13 postage-stamps. Only 75 proofs of this will be taken;
each proof will be numbered, and then the block burnt. An early
application is really necessary, 25 copies being already sold.
Address...."
These "proofs," rarer, no doubt, than the originals, were endorsed
editorially, and collectors unable to procure the original stamp were
told they "would do well to provide themselves with one of these
facsimiles." The astute Mr. Pemberton, however, took a very different
view. "Although he tells every one that they are merely facsimiles and
not the real stamps, we cannot but help thinking that he is acting
wrongly; for less scrupulous dealers than himself will sell them as
genuine.... Again, these imitations are by far the best executed of any
we have seen. The regularly forged stamps are wretched in comparison
with these, and therefore all the more caution will be required to
detect them." So he proceeds to a detailed description of the small
differences existing between genuine and imitation.
There is no royal road by which the collector can attain to the
accurate and ready discrimination between the right and the wrong
copies of stamps. Forgeries have multiplied enormously between 1863
and 1911, so that now the standard handbook by the Rev. R. B. Earée is
a masterpiece of detail entitled "Album Weeds," occupying two large
volumes containing nearly 1,300 pages of text. It would be idle to
pretend that even the expert has every description contained therein
"at his fingers' ends." Yet the expert is rarely deceived in a stamp,
even when he has not access at the time to Mr. Earée's work or other
references. I remember an early instruction, the only one that covers
the subject, but I forget whence it comes. It was that if you study
your stamps an imperceptible sense will come to you that will enable
you at once to acclaim the true and to suspect if not denounce the
false.
Beyond this I can only advise the reader that, as a complete novice, he
would be unwise to purchase costly rarities and valuable stamps from
unknown and irresponsible persons. The novice will remain a novice in
these matters, unless he acquires some knowledge of the differences
(generally readily distinguishable) between a stamp that is from
an engraved plate and a forgery that is, say, lithographed or from
a wood-cut. It is important to remember also--at least for the new
collector--that strange though it may seem to him, stamps really do
fetch what they are considered to be worth by collectors and dealers
of experience, and that if rare stamps are offered much below the
current quotation by individuals supposed to know their true worth, it
may often be, and generally is, that the wares they have for sale are
either forgeries or carefully mended copies of damaged originals.
There is little danger of the collector being much at the mercy of the
forger if his transactions are confined to the reputable dealers, for
these latter have done more to purify the honest trade in stamps than
can, I think, be said of the dealers in the objects of other forms of
collecting. They have expert knowledge on their staff, and access to
highly specialised opinions and advice in the various branches of the
subject.
Personally, I do not consider the forgery question nearly so serious an
obstacle in Philately as in other crafts. Most active stamp-collectors
are companionable with other students of the same subject, and
there would be little opportunity for an _Affaire Vrain-Lucas_, in
which during a period of several years a French autograph collector
accumulated 27,000 autographs for about £6,000, mostly forgeries, and
all from the same source, or for such a string of incidents as was
exposed in the recent china case in Great Britain.
[Illustration: A GENUINE "PLATE 6."]
Forgeries of stamps are made either for the purpose of defrauding the
Government or else for rifling the pockets of the stamp collector;
these may be classed in two groups: (1) where a stamp is a forgery
either in its entirety or in some added, as distinguished from
"altered," material detail; and (2) where a genuine stamp is so altered
as to apparently convert it into some other stamp. The first group are
generally covered in the term "forgeries," the second being specially
distinguished as "fakes." There is another class dubbed "bogus," or
sometimes more elegantly _timbres de fantasie_, which comprises labels
which are a pure invention, and never had any genuine existence at all.
[Illustration: THE FAMOUS "STOCK EXCHANGE" FORGERY OF THE ONE SHILLING
GREEN STAMP OF GREAT BRITAIN.
One specimen was used on October 31, 1872, and the other on June 13 of
the next year. The enlargements betray trifling differences, in the
details of the design as compared with the genuine stamp above.]
The first attack on the Post Office revenue of which there is any
record is the subject of a letter from Downing Street, London, dated
September 2, 1840, and addressed to the late Sir (then Mr.) Rowland
Hill:--"Mr. Smith has just called and informed me that a forgery of the
Penny Label was yesterday detected in his office. The letter bearing
the forged stamp has been handed over to the Stamp Office to be dealt
with by them ... the forged stamp is a wood-cut...." An entry a few
days later in Mr. Hill's diary reads:--"At the Stamp Office I saw the
forged label. It is a miserable thing and could not possibly deceive
any except the most stupid and ignorant."
The above seems to have been an almost isolated attempt to defraud the
revenue, but it is interesting as being the earliest known forgery,
appearing, as it did, within four months of the issue of the first
postage-stamp.
A far more romantic forgery, and one of almost colossal magnitude, was
discovered in 1898. About that time, a large quantity of British One
Shilling stamps--those of the 1865 type in green, with large uncoloured
letters in the corners--came on the market, though, as they had been
used on telegram forms, they ought to have been destroyed: probably the
guilty parties relied on this official practice, not always honoured in
observance, as offering a security against not merely the tracing of
the offence but the discovering of the fraud itself.
Anyhow, after a lapse of twenty-six years, it was found that amongst
these one shilling stamps there was a large proportion of forgeries
(purporting to be from plate 5), all used on July 23, 1872, at the
Stock Exchange Telegraph Office, London, E.C. More recent discoveries
show that the fraud was continued for over twelve months,[16] and, as
an indication of the precautions taken by the forgers, plate 6 (which
came into use in March, 1872) was duly imitated, although the change of
the small figures was a detail probably never noticed by members of the
general public.
According to calculations, based on the average numbers used on several
days, the Post Office must have lost about £50 a day during the period
mentioned above. Who were the originators and perpetrators of the fraud
will probably never be known: possibly a stock-broker's clerk (or a
small "syndicate" of those gentlemen), or, more probably, a clerk in
the Post Office itself. It was an ingenious fraud, well planned and
cleverly carried out at a minimum of risk, and, but for the market for
old stamps, it would never have been discovered.
Amongst foreign countries, Spain has been the greatest sufferer from
forgery: her numerous, and until recent times almost yearly, issues
were mainly necessitated by the circulation of counterfeits, which
appeared on letters within a very short time after each new series of
stamps had been put on sale.
Some of the old Italian States, particularly Naples and the Neapolitan
Provinces, were defrauded of part of their revenue by numerous
forgeries of some of their stamps; and in these cases, as in that of
Spain, letters survive on which the postage has been entirely, or in
part, "paid" by means of counterfeits.
An ingenious fraud on the Indian Post Office was discovered in 1890,
through the care with which collectors frequently examine their stamps.
The One Rupee, slate, of the 1882-88 issue, very cleverly imitated,
was found to be frequently coming to this country on letters from
Bombay, and police inquiries, made on the information of a well-known
philatelist, led to the detection of the culprit; he, it seems,
engraved a facsimile on box-wood, and printed his stamps, one by one,
on paper as similar as possible to the genuine, but without watermark;
the perforation he effected by placing the printed label between two
plates of thin metal each with holes corresponding to the intended
perforations, and then, by the aid of a blunt wire, punching out the
small circular pieces of paper!
Other instances have been noted, but those given are the best known,
and serve as good examples of frauds against Post Offices, so far as
forgery of the entire stamp is concerned; but, of recent years, a new
kind of fraud has come into vogue--the alteration of a genuine stamp
into one of a much higher denomination, affecting British Colonies
only.
The possibility of this has resulted from the desire of the authorities
to print the majority of colonial stamps, available for postal
or fiscal purposes, in two colours--one being distinctive of the
particular value, and the other a purple or green, very susceptible to
any attempt to remove an obliteration or cancellation, whether by the
Post Office or by a member of the public: by the latter, in writing-ink.
The _modus operandi_ is ingenious--a stamp is selected, of which nearly
the whole design is, say, in green, the name and (low) value being in
some distinctive colour; the original value and name are removed by
chemical means, the name and new (high) value being substituted in
a colour applicable to the higher denomination--result, if the work
be carefully done, a stamp which would deceive not only the ordinary
official (who is seldom of real philatelic inclinations) but even,
at first glance, the average collector, unless he is on the look-out
for such "fakes," which, as a matter of fact, have been made for his
delectation also.
As has been remarked, the number of forgeries made to deceive
collectors has been immeasurably greater than of those prepared for
defrauding the Revenue; and it has been endeavoured to select some
of the most daring, and often successful, attempts to palm off a
clever forgery as a genuine--generally rare, but sometimes quite
common--postage-stamp.
In 1903, taking our own country first, an attempt was made to place on
the market unused copies of the rare Ten Shillings and One Pound stamps
of 1878-83, printed on Large Anchor paper, and perforated 14: these
were almost at once discovered by Mr. Nissen, the same philatelist who
first noticed the One Shilling (plate 5) counterfeits used at the Stock
Exchange Post Office, to be exceedingly clever forgeries. They were,
save for a slight lack of finish in the finer details, practically of
design identical with that of the original stamps; the colours were
well matched, and, most deceptive of all, the paper and perforation
were undoubtedly genuine. This timely discovery nipped the forgers'
schemes in the bud, but, some eight years subsequently, the lower of
these two forged stamps came again on the market, this time provided
with a neat, though fraudulent, postmark.
So far as can be judged from the examination of specimens of this
forgery, the paper used was that on which were printed certain "Inland
Revenue" stamps--probably the Threepence, which alone was watermarked
and perforated as were the two stamps imitated; but possibly other
fiscals also were used--the colour being chemically removed,
leaving a blank piece of paper, properly and genuinely watermarked
and perforated, all ready to receive the fraudulent imitation. An
undoubtedly clever, but almost unsuccessful, fraud on collectors;
though rumour has it that a well-known philatelist, usually credited
with capability to protect himself, was a victim for a substantial sum,
as the price of an unused "Pound Anchor"!
A recently attempted fraud--this time of the kind known as a
"fake"--has been, it is hoped, successfully exposed. As is well
known, especially to collectors of British stamps, the first Twopence
Halfpenny stamp, issued in 1875, shows an error of corner-lettering
on plate 2: the twelfth and last stamp in the eighth horizontal row
should have been lettered "L.H.--H.L." but, through want of care,
actually bore the letters "L.H.--F.L." This error, especially in unused
condition, is scarce, and the faker has naturally made an effort to
supply the deficiency.
Obviously, the easiest way to manufacture this error is to select a
stamp from plate 2 with the lettering of "L.F.--F.L." (the last stamp
in the _sixth_ row), and alter the first "F" into "H", with hope of
probable success because the collector's criticism would naturally
(if wrongly) be concentrated on the incorrect letter in the lower
left-hand corner. Unfortunately for the "fake," which was very well
executed, its creator, wishing no doubt to enhance its value, had left
the "error" in pair with the eleventh stamp in the same row: result, a
very nice pair from the sixth row, lettered "K.F.--F.K.", "L.H.--F.L.",
showing (as a consequence of being in pair) a mistake--"H" for "F" in
the upper right-hand corner. This, of course, condemned the error at
once, but the example serves to show how very careful one must be,
and how necessary it is to examine and consider every circumstance in
connection with the particular stamp under observation.
There are two varieties of stamps, differing from the normal through
some slip in the process of manufacture--bicoloured stamps, in which
the portion printed in one colour is inverted as regards the remainder
of the design, caused by carelessness in "feeding" the partly-printed
sheet wrong way up into the press, for the second impression completing
the design; and pairs of stamps, which, each quite normal if severed,
are when _se tenant_ inverted in respect to each other, a condition
philatelically termed _tête-bêche_.
The fraudulent manipulator has turned his attention to these, generally
scarce and frequently very rare, eccentricities, cutting out from
the bicoloured stamp the part printed in one colour and replacing it
with great care, but upside down; and, as to the _tête-bêche_ pairs,
manufacturing them by means of two single copies, a strong adhesive
mixture and heavy pressure.
Sometimes, so well have these frauds been made that nothing short of
several hours' _boiling_ has sufficed to dissolve the illegal union of
the two pieces of paper--a drastic test, and one somewhat detrimental
to the value of such copies as are enabled, by their genuineness, to
survive the ordeal. The possible result to, say, a mint imperforate
Fourpence, Ceylon, suspected of having recently acquired its otherwise
desirable "margins," reminds me of the test given (not advocated) by
a famous philatelist for the detection of forgeries of early Cashmere
stamps, which were printed in water-colour--"Put them in water; if the
colour is 'fast' the stamp is a forgery; if it comes off, leaving a
blank piece of paper, the stamp is genuine"!
A famous forgery was put on the market some years ago, the stamp
imitated being the One Penny value of the well-known first issue of New
South Wales, commonly called "Sydney Views." This stamp was issued in
sheets of twenty-five, each repetition of the design being separately
engraved on the plate and so giving twenty-five minor varieties; and
subsequently the entire plate was re-cut, doubling the number of
varieties for the specialist. The forger engraved his fraudulent wares
and printed the labels, as were the originals, direct from the plate,
in a very good imitation of the ink used in 1850 and on similar paper;
and these reproductions, often in pairs, were affixed to old envelopes
and cancelled with forged postmarks.
So well executed were these forgeries that suspicions as to their
character were not raised until an endeavour was made to ascertain the
original positions on the sheet of these desirable (?) specimens: then
it was found that the details of design did not tally with those of
any of the known varieties, and the career of yet another forgery was
brought (somewhat tardily) to an untimely end.
Watermarks in the paper were for many years a stumbling-block to
the counterfeiter, and practically all the old and generally poorly
lithographed forgeries were on plain paper: nowadays, however, the
watermark is imitated by actually thinning the paper where necessary,
or by impressing it with a die cut to resemble the design, or by
painting the "watermark" on the back with an oily composition which
renders the paper slightly transparent, and so apparently thinner.
In a comparatively recent forgery of the Registration stamp of New
South Wales sent by a correspondent, the counterfeit was produced by
the same process (from line-engraved plates) as the original; the
watermark showed very distinctly when the label was placed face down,
but was not visible at all when held up to the light: it was a "paint"
mark in a very faint tint of the ink used for printing that part of the
forgery where it appeared.
Occasionally, but it must be admitted not very often, forgeries are so
inscribed. A notable instance is the series of large handsome stamps
issued by the United States during 1875-95 for payment of the postage
on newspapers, singly or in bulk, and ranging from one cent to the high
value of one hundred dollars: on each of these particular counterfeits
the word "Falsch" was engraved as part of the design, and "Facsimile"
was printed across the central portion of the stamp.
Practically the same course was adopted in the native manufacture of
forged sets of the early Japanese stamps, the counterfeits (which
were produced by the same process as the originals) being marked in
the design with two microscopic characters signifying "facsimile":
unfortunately for the honest intention of the forger to give due notice
of the spuriousness of his productions, the incriminating letters are
so small that a carefully applied postmark is apt to completely hide
them.
Some stamps have been very extensively forged: for instance, of the
2½ rappen issued in the Swiss Canton of Basle, in 1845, no less
than seventeen distinct counterfeits have been detected. The stamp, of
which an embossed dove carrying a letter in its beak is the central
part of the design, is tricoloured--pale greenish blue, dull crimson
and black--and, in common with most of the other Swiss Cantonals, is
becoming rare. Copies have also been faked by thinning down card proofs
of the genuine impression and adding gum.
Of the rarest Cantonal stamp, usually known as the "double Geneva," and
consisting of two stamps of 5 centimes each, joined at the top by a
long label inscribed with the aggregate value of 10 centimes, fifteen
(probably more) forgeries are known; and as the entire stamp is priced
at £75 unused and £28 used, it is naturally worth the counterfeiter's
while to persist in the improvement of his imitations, with little
hope, however, of attaining a perfection sufficient to defy discovery.
Individuals, however, are not the only forgers of postage-stamps:
Governments, too, in their anxiety to provide so-called "reprints"
for sale to dealers and collectors, have not hesitated to supply
the necessary dies and plates, replacing those originally used and
long since cancelled; and some have sunk so low as to deliberately
manufacture counterfeits, and sell them as genuine stamps out of a
supposed stock left on hand!
A reprint is an impression from the old original die, plate, or stone,
taken after the stamp has become obsolete; but prints from a new die,
however faithful a copy it may be, can only be correctly given one
name--forgery.
In 1875, the United States Government, desiring to exhibit a complete
series of their postage-stamps, and finding that the original dies and
plates used for production of the Five and Ten Cents, 1847, were not
available, ordered new dies to be cut: impressions from these, though
closely approaching the originals, can be distinguished therefrom by
certain minute but well-defined differences in the design.
The first issue of Fiji--a series printed from ordinary printers' type
at the office of a local newspaper, and known amongst philatelists as
the "_Fiji Times_ Express" stamps--has been twice "reprinted" from
a special setting-up of similar type; but, as the original printing
_forme_ had been "distributed," even a re-setting of the actual type
would produce little less than a forgery of a class euphemistically
described as "official imitations."
The greatest sinners in this respect were the officials at Jassy,
Roumania, who, in response to numerous applications for copies of the
four very rare stamps of July, 1858, caused to be made, at different
times, no less than three varying types of the 54, 81, and 108
paras--which they sold as genuine. It was only in the late 'seventies
that this official fraud was thoroughly exposed.
As I have indicated, it is impossible, within the limits of a single
chapter, to do more than touch the fringe of the subject of forgery
and "faking," and the dissection of a few skilful imitations would
not materially add to the warning which the previous few pages will
have conveyed--that the interest taken by the forger in Philately is a
purely mercenary one, detrimental to our scientific hobby and damaging
to our pockets; the collector must always be on the defensive and on
the look-out for pitfalls, not relying too much on a guarantee of
genuineness (which only secures reimbursement of money paid) to prevent
the admission into his album of a forgery or clever fake.
The prevalence of forgery--and the almost equally reprehensible
"reprinting"--should be no insurmountable obstacle to the collector;
rather it should be a spur to prick the sides of his intent to intimate
study and patient research. By collecting in a thorough and scientific
manner, the collector will so impress on his memory the general
features of the majority of the world's issues, together with the
details of the safeguards afforded by paper, watermark and perforation,
that the first glimpse at a forgery or fake will reveal a something
which at once rouses suspicion that the particular label is not the
legitimate offspring of the Post Office.
The "bogus" stamp, that is, the fraudulent label which has never
existed as an original, is not to be feared: standard catalogues of
the present day contain a practically accurate list of the designs
of all issued stamps, and information as to new issues is so widely
disseminated by the philatelic press that the chances of successfully
placing a bogus stamp or issue are very small.
There have been frauds of this kind, but they are so few, and their
character is so easily ascertained from the perusal of any catalogue
deserving of the name, that it will suffice to merely mention two or
three countries which have had bogus issues foisted on them.
A place supposed to be named Sedang and said to be ruled by a Frenchman
was credited with a set of stamps for its non-existent Post Office;
Brunei, in 1895 or thereabouts, was reported to have issued a set of
stamps, which eventually turned out to be the private speculation of
some European trader; and Cordoba (a province of Argentina) had her
two legitimate stamps of 5 and 10 centavos supplemented by four higher
values of similar design made for the delectation of collectors.
There are a good many more, including the so-called issues for
Clipperton Island, Torres Straits, Principality of Trinidad, Counani
(the character of these last named is, I believe, still contested),
Spitsbergen; and certain labels purporting to hail from Hayti, Hawaii,
German East Africa, and Mozambique.
For the novice it may be well to add that the absence of a variety
of a known stamp from the catalogue does not necessarily signify
that it must be so rare in that particular form that it is unknown
to the cataloguer. It may, of course, be a new discovery, but it is
not less likely to be a variety which has been built up by some one
interested in beguiling you with a fancy of his own. Forgers have been
known to add new denominations to the sets of stamps they have been
counterfeiting, that is to say, bearing face values unknown in the
genuine series, and sometimes fictitious overprints or surcharges are
applied to genuine stamps. The most remarkable instance of the latter I
can recall is the "Two Cents" overprint on the 3 cents brown on yellow
Sarawak, which even the local authorities had come to believe in as
having been applied by an up-country official in need of Two Cents
stamps, but which were surcharged in London, where the dies of the
surcharge and the very genuine-looking combinations of postmarks were
subsequently found during an important _cause celèbre_.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] See _The Postage Stamp_, vi. 153.
IX
FAMOUS
COLLECTIONS