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CEYLON (Sri Lanka) 1855-1867

Return To Catalogue - 1868-1902 issues - 1903-1920 issues - Queen Victoria surcharges - Ceylon miscellaneous

Note: on my website many of the pictures can not be seen! They are of course present in the cd's;
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1855 Queen Victoria, 1855 (imperforated), 1861 (perforated), value in pence, various frames

Imperforate

  1/2 p lilac (1857)
  1 p blue
  2 p green
  4 p red
  5 p brown
  6 p lilac
  8 p brown
  9 p brown
  10 p red
  1 Sh violet
  1 Sh 9 p green
  2 Sh blue

vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon

*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare

Perforated

  1/2 p lilac
  1 p blue
  2 p green
  2 p yellow 
  4 p red
  5 p brown
  5 p green
  6 p brown
  8 p brown
  9 p brown
  10 p red
  1 Sh violet 
  2 Sh blue

vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon

*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare

Forgeries, examples:

Some primitive forgeries are shown above. In all the above forgeries, the word 'CEYLON' is wrongly positioned (especially the 'Y'). The inscription 'FOUR PENCE' is situated at a different place in the 4 p stamp. The 9 p also has the lettering not at the same place as the genuine stamps, I have seen this 9 p forgery in brown also.

Much more dangerous forgeries exist of the 4 p, 9 p and 1 Sh 9 p (even with faked watermark); for more details see Album Weeds.

Some other primitive forgeries:

More sophisticated forgeries:

The above stamp (6 p brown) is the forgery mentioned in Album Weeds (I think). The ellipses of small white dots that follow the word 'CEYLON' can be seen very clearly (in the genuine stamps it is not that clearly visible). Before and behind the word 'POSTAGE' there should be a star with two oblique lines (one up and one downwards to make a cross, see enlarged image below). But in the forgeries these two lines are absent. I have also seen the 6 p forgery perforated.

(Genuine stamp)

Forgeries of the 1 Sh 9 p stamp (thanks to Brian Hickling for passing this information to me):

This a "common" lithographic forgery from the 1870's. However they were printed in thousands and were found in many 19th century collections, but are not often met with nowadays. It can be easy distinguished as a lithograph from the lack of precision in the design

Jefferies forgery of the 1 Sh 9 p stamp:

The best way of distinghuishing this Jefferies forgery (according to Brian Hicklings) is the lower part of the amphersand (&) which is much too large on the forgery. Also the O in ceylon is larger in the forgery and is not out of line (due to its size) with the L as in the original. This is a dangerous forgery.

(Oneglia forgery of the 2 p value, reduced size)

The above forgery is an Oneglia forgery, which in engraved as the genuine stamps. Sorry, for the small size of the picture of this forgery.

I suspect that the next forgery was made by Peter Winter (but I'm not 100% sure):

(Modern forgery)

(London Exhibition Sheet)

In 1950 a souvenir sheet was issued in London for 'The London International Stamp Exhibtion'; On this souvenir sheet there is a 1 Sh Nova Scotia 1852 violet stamp, a Penny Black, a New South Wales 1 p red 1850, a Ceylon 4 p 1859 and a 4 p Cape triangle of 1853, it was reproduced by the collotype process and printed by Waterlow & Sons. All stamps are imperforate. I have seen all the cuts from this sheet offered as forgeries. If I remember well from my own collection, this sheet has a quite white appearance.

A more sophisticated forgery, pretending to be a rare 4 p imperforate stamp. Actually it is a perforated stamp with watermark star, with the perforations removed:

For more stamps of Ceylon with the image of Queen Victoria (1868-1902), click here.

Stamps - Timbres Poste - Briefmarken - Postzegels

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer

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