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BENIN, GOLFE DE BENIN

(French Colony in West Africa)

Return To Catalogue - Benin 1893 and miscellaneous - France

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1892 French colonies issue, manually overprinted "BENIN"

With blue overprint? 10 c black 15 c blue 15 c blue, blue overprint With blue overprint, image obtained from a Siegel auction 15 c red overprint Image obtained from a Siegel auction

  1 c black
  2 c brown
  4 c brown
  5 c green (exists overprinted in black or blue)
  10 c black
  15 c blue (exists overprinted in black, blue or red)
  20 c red on green
  25 c black
  30 c brown
  35 c brown
  40 c red
  75 c red
  1 F olive

Surcharged

'01' (red) on 5 c green '01' on 5 c green and '40' on 15 c blue '75' on 15 c blue Image obtained from a Siegel auction Image obtained from a Siegel auction Image reproduced with permission from: http://www.sandafayre.com 

  '01' (red) on 5 c green
  '40' (red) on 15 c blue
  '75' (red) on 15 c blue
    (this stamp exists with '75' overprinted in black)

Value of the stamps

 
vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon
 
*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare
Value Unused Used Remarks
1 c *** ***  
2 c *** ***  
5 c ** ** with blue overprint RRR
10 c *** ***  
15 c *** ** with blue overprint RR, with red overprint ***
20 c *** ***  
25 c *** ***  
30 c R R  
35 c R R  
40 c R R  
75 c R R  
1 F R R  
Surcharged
'01' on 5 c *** ***  
'40' on 15 c R ***  
'75' (red) on 15 c RR RR with black overprint RRR

Image obtained from a Harmers auction
(Diagonal 'BENIN' overprint)

The overprint "BENIN" also exists diagonally, also with accent on the "E". Be careful, many forged 'BENIN' overprints exist. Also non-official reprints exist of the values 1 c, 2 c, 3 c, 15 c (blue overprint), 20 c and 25 c.

Forgeries:


Forged overprints taken from a Fournier Album.


Fournier forgeries, both stamp, overprint and cancel "GRAND POPO BENIN 7 NOV 92" forged. In the Fournier forgeries, the perforation does not match perfectly in the corners.


Probably genuine stamps, but with forged "BENIN" and forged cancel "GRAND POPO BENIN 7 NOV 92". Most likely produced by Fournier as well.

The above cancel can also be found in 'The Fournier Album of Philatelic Forgeries'. See French colonies, forgeries for more details on these Fournier forgeries:


Fournier forged cancels, the Benin forged cancel can be found in the 5th row, last cancel.


These forgeries look at first sight like Fournier forgeries, but they don't have the same distinguishing characteristics. However, the cancel "COTONOU 17 NOV. 92 BENIN" does exist in the Fournier Album, however, this cancel appears to have the year "94". They exist pasted on small pieces of paper. These might actually be forgeries made by the stamp forger Oneglia, who also offered an inverted overprint on the 5 c and overprints on genuine stamps. The forged overprint and cancel were also applied to genuine stamps (see the last 30 c and 1 F forgeries).


Fournier Album with forged cancels. The cancel "COTONOU 17 NOV. 92 BENIN" can be found in the third row, first cancel.


I presume this is a forgery, the overprint looks 'drawn by hand' to me.


Red "BENIN" on 15 c; I think this is a forgery, since the cancel from "POINTE A PITRE GUADELOUPE" can still be seen...


Very dubious item.


Two other forged "BENIN" overprints.


Forged "BENIN" overprint (too broad) on a genuine stamp already used in Indochina(?).


Forged "BENIN" overprint, made by the forger Sperati. I've seen this forged overprint being applied to a 4 c and a 5 c genuine French Colonies stamp.


"BENIN" overprint forgery pretending to be on the previous issue of the French Colonies (but it is actually a cut from a postal stationary judging from the cancel).

 

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Copyright by Evert Klaseboer