Classical Stamps

Robert,
you may be right !
But in any case I take every bet,that the forged 1 pound-coins are worth much more than 2 pounds.
Maybe,that was the idea of the not that stupid Irish Man ?

Werner

 

Italy
upper stamp: 1/2 Grano,issued 1861 for the former kingdom of Naples.
(from a set of 8)
middle: 80 C.,issued Oct,3rd,1862. (from a set of 4) In used condition a very
expensive stamp.
bottom: additional value,issued Jan.1st,1863.

 

issued Dec.1st,1863;

 

1 C. issued 1863, 2 C. issued March 1st,1865, 20 C. issued April 1867;

 

The above letter with a 9 Kreuzer Baden missprint on green paper (the paper of the 6 Kreuzer),instead on lilac rose paper,was sold in Germany for roughly
US-$ 1.8 millions,fees and taxes incl.
It is said to be the highest price payed for a german stamp ever.
Three specimens of this missprint are known.Two on letter,one on a letter-piece.
The sold letter belonged to the collection of the german billionaire Erivan Haub,who died 2018,aged 85.

 

The Duchy of Modena issued six stamps 5,10,15,25,40 C. and 1 Lira on June 1st,1851.Except of the 15 and 25 C. (no period only) all values exist with or
without a period after the figures of value.

In 1859 a provisional government issued five more stamps,prior the introduction of the stamps of Sardinia and later of Italy.
There are also five newspaper tax stamps,issued 1853/59.

 

Parma,first series,issued June 1st,1852.
Except of the 10 C. all stamps (5,15,25,40 C.) of the first series
were printed on coloured paper.

 

Parma,second series coloured on white paper,
issued Dec.31st,1853 (5 C.),Dec.30th,1853 (15 C.) and 25 C., I do not have),
issued May 28th,1855.

 

One stamp only of the third series.
issued: 15 C. March 4th,1859,25 C. July 3rd,1857,40 C. June 30th,1857

After the abolition of the duchy 1859,stamps of Sardinia were used for a short time.End of August/September a set of five stamps and two newspaper-tax
stamps were issued by the provisional government.
In March 1860 Parma became a part of Sardinia and subsequently of Italy.

 

Romagna was part of the Papal State.It broke away in 1859 and joined the
united Italy soon after.
Nine stamps were issued in 1859 (1/2,1,2,3,4,5,6,8,20 Bajocchi).
Except of the shown 4 B.,the stamps were not used a lot.So mint stamps
are much cheaper than used ones and cancel-forgeries are plentiful.

 

The kindom of Sardinia was,apart from the island,situated in the north-west
of Italy.In 1859/60 Sardinia annexed nearly all other Italian States and
was renamed Kingdom of Italy.

upper right: first issue 1851 3 val. 5,20 (shown),40 C.

The second issue of 1853 is like 1851,but now the head of the king
and insriptions are embossed.

lower left: third issue 1854 same values,frame fully coloured,head of the king colourless embossed.Shown is the 20 C.

upper left and lower right: fourth issue 1855-63,head only embossed.
This series is rich in different prints,shades etc.
5,10,20,40 (shown),80 C.,3 L. (shown).The bronze colour of the 3 L.
appears brown on my scan.
Same stamps perforated = Italy 1862 issue.

Two newspaper stamps (1 and 2 C.) were issued in 1861,what show the
numerals embossed in the centre oval.

 

No Known forgeries?
Fournier made abundant forgeries of all the T&T and different fake cancels
Placido Ramon De Torres made several forgeries also in large quantities but somewhat crude
There are also several types of crude forgeries from an unknown source
In 1909 large numbers of reprints were made from original plates but as they were not government approved to be resold the word "reprint" means little else than forgeries in this case
Then there are the imperfs that were fake and perfed by the Senf brothers
Also numerous fake imperfs from trimmed later rouletted issues - easy to tell by the embossing
And of course many fake cancels. This would be next to impossible to determine without genuine cancel samples

 

I am by no means an expert for Thurn and Taxis and do not have
a lot of literature about forgeries.
According to Opitz "Wissen schützt vor Schaden",Fournier "only
played a secondary part",but faked a lot of cancels.
The 1909 reprints were produced on the order of the Thurn and Taxis
Central-Archive in Regensburg.7500 stamps each (33) were reprinted.
Michel lists them for Euro 5.- each.
There are a few other forgeries,- Sperati did the 1/3 Sgr. -,but they
are rare and more valuable than the originals.
Apart from alterations,that I had described before and faked cancels,
Thurn and Taxis is very "secure" to collect,if you only use your
"healthy mind".

 

These comment seems to differ from your earlier post that there are no T&T forgeries.
The thing about forgeries is very simple - if one article/book says there are X number of forgeries - you are guaranteed there are X+ forgeries
As for the plentiful fake cancels without samples of the genuine cancels, a "healthy mind" would not be of any use.

 

sforgca,
you probably misunderstood me: with a "healthy mind",or
if you like common sense,I mean you should keep simple
precautions,when buying Thurn und Taxis stamps.
An example (the most extreme one):
Michel 45 (1/4 Gr. coloured rouletting,1866) costs
mint € 3.-,used € 1300.-.If you have interest in a used one
and are no expert yourself,you miss a healthy mind,
if you buy it without the expertise of an internationally
regognized expert.It´s probably even better,to stay away
from such used rarities at all.

 

The Electorate of Hannover (the name changed several times
over the centuries) became a kingdom in 1814.
The Prince Elector of Hannover became king of England as
George I in 1714.
The personal union of Hannover and Britain remained till the death
of William IV.Victoria became queen of Britain,but could not become
queen of Hannover,because in Hannover male-succession was the
rule.
Hannover issued stamps from 1850 till 1865.25 main-numbers,
according to Michel.

upper: Mi.no.1,issued Dec.1st,1850
lower: Mi.no.2,issued July 30th,1851
Except for the different colours of the paper,the stamps also have
different watermarks.
Both stamps were valid within the kingdom only.
The Hannover currency (till 1858) was:
1 Thaler = 24 Gutengroschen = 288 (gute) Pfennige

 

Stamps for use to countries of the "Deutsch-Österreichischer-Postverein"
(German-Austrian-Postcommunity) in (prussian) Thaler/Silbergroschen currency.
Issued mid-July 1851.The shown colour-variety of the 1/30th Thaler
was issued in Feb.1855.
Since 1854 the stamps became valid for postage to all foreign countries.
They were also valid for inland-mail,but use is extremely rare,because
the different currency parities made it impossible to frank letters
correctly.

 

The face value of the above stamp may look strange,if you have some
knowledge about the Thaler/Silbergroschen currency.
One Silbergroschen was made up by 12 Pfennige.So a 1/3 (EIN DRITTEL) Silbergroschen would be 4 Pfennige.
But there were two currencies in Hannover.
The 3 Pfennige stands for Gute Pfennige.However it was even more
complicated,as 3 Gute Pfennige were equivalent to 3.75 Pfennige in
Silbergroschen currency only.But that discrepancy was simply ignored
or accepted.
The shown stamp is not the one,what was issued on April 15th,1853
(Michel no.6),but the later one issued in February 1859 (Michel no.13)
The design is identical,but the 1859 version was printed on paper
without watermark,while that of 1853 has the watermark "oak-garland".

 

altered background,instead of a solid yellow background of the 1851
issue,the above stamp,issued in Dec.1855 has a mesh-network background.This one is the only,where the meshes are narrow.

 

1856/57 stamps of the previous designs were issued again,
now with a mesh-network background of wide meshes.
Missing from the set is the 3 Pfennige in the same design as shown
in post #438,but now with a dark-grey mesh-network background.