Classical Stamps

I´m neither an expert for early french stamps,nor do I know how
scarce the Sperati-forgery of the 1 F.-stamp is.
But to my humble knowledge your stamp is no Sperati-forgery.
Sperati (1884-1957) claimed to have produced never forgeries
but imitations.And had sold his products as such.
His imitations were so well made,that experts often took them
for originals.Probably most famous are his imitations of the 1859
error-print of the 2 Schillinge from Lübeck.The error is (ZWEI EIN HALB instead of ZWEI) in the line of words.
The error occurs on two neighbouring stamps (each of them is identifiable) in a sheet of 100.
Sperati imitated only one of them.Today exist about double as
many of the error stamps of the one Sperati imitated,than of the
other one.The only logical explanation for this is,that his
imitations were just perfect !
Back to your stamp:
The "Sperati-forgery" can be identified by a break in the upper
part of the right frame-line,what your stamp does not show.
However it might be possible,that the break was closed by
hand-drawing later.But that should not be to difficult to see.
Usually "Sperati-forgeries" are much cheaper than the original
stamps.Prices should be well below the € 50.- mark.But I do not
know,if there are exceptions.But especially on e-bay one can
find pretty odd offers with "lunatic" prices.

 

Bob,
neither was I !
I fully agree: you got a nice stamp at a bargain price.
Werner

 

The last series,issued 1868.
All Baden stamps remained valid till Dec.31st,1871.
Next day the stamps of the Reichspost of Germany were introduced.

 

Rural Postage Due Stamps,issued 1862/63
Most stamps are off center.
Although in use for nearly nine years,genuinely used stamps
are much more expensive than mint ones.
The 12 Kreuzer used is very rare and expensive ($ 20.000.- +)
Remainders were sold 1873.
For the 12 Kr.:
printed approx.160.000,sold as remainders 159.307 !!

 

On Jan.1st,1905 service stamps for use in Baden were issued.
However this were not "normal" service stamps,but they were
issued for statistical reasons.

 

Although the T&T full forgeries are not as plentiful as some other States, they do exist.
Several forgers made them most notably Fournier who forged the complete series and did some reasonable work.
An example of his work

 

A nice copy of a forgery !
If it is not due to the scan,the colour of the paper is quite
different to originals,like this one:

There are also a lot of minor details what differ,
For me the most striking point would be the cut.It is highly
unlikely,that a genuine stamp can have such wide margins,
without showing parts of the neighbouring stamps.

 

After the Second World War the southern part of Baden came
under french occupation.(the north was occupied by the US)
Here some examples of the 57 stamps,issued 1947/1949.
These were the last stamps inscribed Baden.

 

These scans are awful, can barely make them out

 

Checking the size of the "F" in a Sperati forgery is the least reliable method other than the fact a Sperati tends to have more rounded corners

Sperati on top, Genuine re-issue bottom
Sperati made several variations of this stamp
1. Most Sperati tend to have breaks in the outer frame
2. The first S in POSTES has a short top
3. A real feature is to examine the pearls. In the genuine they are all distinctly separated from the frame. In the Sperati many are fused with it
4. The scrollwork on the sides has many differences
5. The white areas in the neck are more prominent and the lines are more irregular
6. The small dots under the neck are irregular
7. Several hair lines are missing
A dozen other differences

 

In case you might wonder what reasonable scans of German states look like, here are a few examples from my collection











If you are using one of those All in One scanner/printer there is a solution
Stop using it, get a decent dedicated scanner from Epson or Canon ($50-$250) and use a good scanning program like VueScan.

 

I am aware that the Hamburg stamp is a Mi. 19U Essay with a of CV about 2.5X the 19 CV which I also have. CV's mean nothing since the condition can make it more or much less than the CV. I never collected with CV's in mind as they are just bits of interesting paper.
The post is meant to show how scans of 150 year old stamps can appear with the proper equipment and software.
The imperfs I posted were cropped to show the main features better and are not what the initial scan looks like.
My German States collection is about 95% complete which I can post a particular sample if someone wants to see what a stamp or one of the forgeries looks like. Likewise if someone has some interest in classical France, Belgium, Austria, Spain, Russia, Japan, US Locals, Russian Zemtsvos and many more.

 

Genuine re-issue bottom
[/QUOTE]
Just a question out of curiosity:
Is the shown reprint the one from Feb.23rd,1863 ?
If so,is it identical to the original stamp,or was the plate redone ?
I ask,because the whole stamp looks so much crisper than all original
stamps of this set I have seen so far.

 

one of the Canadian best