Preview of Stamps Catalogue: VOLUME 1

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, triangular issues, forgeries of the woodblock issue

Return To Catalogue - Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), triangular issues - Cape of Good Hope, triangular issues, forgeries - South Africa

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Genuine 'woodblock' stamps:

This 'woodblock' print became necessary, because a shipment of stamps from Great Britain was late. The woodblock stamps are quite rare. There exist errors of these stamps in the wrong colours: 1 p blue and 4 p red, example:

First forgery (Spiro):

Spiro forgeries of the Woodblock prints

Note the typical shape of the head and the single line on the chest of the woman in the above Spiro forgeries. I have also seen a 1 p Spiro forgery with a cancel consisting of concentric circles. Also note the typical Spiro cancels on these forgeries. The "O" of "ONE" should almost touch the frameline besides it in the genuine stamps. Also there are extra white lines in the outer frames, which don't exist in the genuine stamps. I've seen it printed in sheets of 30 (printed six in a row, 5 rows).

A 'misprint' with "OP" instead of "OF".

Second forgery (Senf)

The above forgeries have the inscription 'Facsimile' twice in the design. They were made by the Senf brothers of Leipzig, Germany. Be careful, I have seen the above 4 p forgery, with the words 'Facsimile' covered by some smudges (pretending to be cancels!). I've also seen the 1 p with the word 'Facsimile' painted over in red. Note that the 'F' of 'FOUR' resembles a 'P'. They were given as 'Kunst Beigaben' (art-supplements) with the Senf stamp magazine:

Senf forgeries, different type(?):

I've been told that the above stamp with overprint 'FACSIMILE' also has been made by Senf, although they are clearly different.

Two other forgeries, which look very similar to the above forgeries. Note the peculiar shape of the "C" of "CAPE" and the hair of the woman. These forgeries appear to have guidelines around the stamp, while the ones with "FACSIMILE" overprint don't have such guidelines.

Third forgery:

In the above forgeries the word 'CAPE' is written slanting to the left, the word 'OF' therefore seems to be printed lower. I have also seen a 1 p red and a 4 p blue (the usual colours) of this particular forgery.

Fourth forgery (Fournier)

Fournier forgeries of the woodblock stamps. The 'A' of 'CAPE' has become a Greec Delta, the 'S' of 'POSTAGE' looks like a 'B'.

Fournier forged cancel

Fifth forgery

(reduced size)

This forgery first had the wrong inscription 'CAPB' instead of 'CAPE' (see top row in the image above), this was later corrected (bottom row).

Most likely a 1 p forgery of the same forger.

Sixth forgery:

Seventh forgery:

Some other primitive forgeries:

The words 'ONE PENNY' are too low and to small.

Peter Winter forgeries, reduced sizes. Note the dot under the "C" of "PENCE" in the 4 p values.

Some modern 'reprint'.

A Peter Winter forgery made in the 1980's, the design is deceptive, but always shows the same imperfections. The misprints 1 p blue and 4 p red were also forged by him.