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CEYLON, 1855-1867 Forgeries

Ceylan

Return To Catalogue - Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1857-1867

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Forgeries of the 1857-1867 issue, 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. They appear to have a "408" cancel, very similar to the Treherne forgeries of Western Australia. Also a forgery with a forged "ZEITUNGS" cancel.


A Treherne forgery of Western Australia with the same "408" cancel.

Forgery!
Another primitive forgery of the 9 p

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

Some other primitive forgeries:

Note the very thin 'TWO PENCE'! Forgery! 1 Sh blue(?) forgery 1 Sh forgeries in two shades


Forgeries with a "1602" cancel which appears also on the forged Natal stamp shown next to it.


A very primitive and a primitive forgery of the 1/2 p value


This 10 p forgery does not have "10" in the corners.


A primitive 1 p forgery with a forged "114" cancel, next to it some forgeries of Wurttemberg with exactly the same cancel.

More sophisticated forgeries:

Forgery! Images obtained with permission from Bill Claghorn
The 10 p should have '10's in the upper corners.

The above stamp in the value 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 this 6 p forgery perforated. I presume that the forgeries of the other values were made by the same forger.


(Genuine stamp)

Forgeries of the 1 Sh 9 p stamp:

1 Sh 9 p green
Probably an Oneglia forgery


This stamp was offered on a prestigious Internet auction in 2007 as genuine, however, I believe this is an Oneglia forgery. Note the strange expression on the face and the heavy shading on the bottom part of the neck (compare it with the next stamp which is presumably genuine). I've seen Oneglia forgeries with an elliptic black cancel together with a red circular town cancel.

I've been told that this stamp is genuine
I've been told that this 1 Sh 9 p stamp is genuine.

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.

Ongelia-Panelli forgeries (engraved)


(Imperforated and perforated Oneglia-Panelli forgeries of the 1 p, 2 p and 5 p value)


Oneglia-Panelli forgery of the 6 p with impressed watermark. The face of the Queen still has a sour expression as in the above 2 p forgery. I've also seen this forgery with perforation.


Oneglia-Panelli forgery of the 1 p value: the ornaments in the lower triangular corners (just above the circular designs) are different from a genuine stamp. Here with a barred numeral barred "G" cancel.

The above forgeries are Oneglia forgeries, they are engraved as the genuine stamps. They are also sometimes referred to as a Panelli forgeries. In the 2 p forgery, the word "POSTAGE" is not placed correctly with respect to the words "TWO PENCE"; the "N" of "PENCE" is situated under the "E" of "POSTAGE", while it is situated under the letters "GE" in the genuine stamp. Also note the 'sour' expression on the face of the Queen. Some of these forgeries have an impressed star watermark as shown in the 6 p forgery above.


Ongelia forgery of the 4 p and 8 p values, a similar forgery exists of the 9 p value.


Forgeries of the 8 p value.


Forgery of the 4 p value with a Portuguese India stamp printed at the back!

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 Exhibition'; 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:

 

A nice site on forgeries of Ceylon: https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?p=7175034


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