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FRANCE CERES TYPE, forgeries, part 3, Fournier

Return To Catalogue - Ceres type stamps - France Ceres type, forgeries, part 1 - France Ceres type forgeries, part 2 - Ceres, Sperati forgeries, part 1 - Ceres, Sperati forgeries, part 2 - France overview

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Forgeries of the 1849 issue:

Second forgery type (Fournier)

Fournier forgeries are much more deceptive.

With 'FAUX' overprint
(Fournier forgeries)


Possibly other Fournier forgery


This piece of paper with a 40 c stamp has cancel 'LE HAVRE 28 MAI 49 (74)' as can be found in 'The Fournier Album of Philatelic forgeries'. Next to it a piece of paper with a tete-beche forged pair. The stamps and cancels are all forged on both pieces.


Fournier forgeries taken from a 'Fournier Album of Philatelic Forgeries', some of them with overprint "FAUX". The value inscriptions '10' and '15' of the 10 and 15 c appear to be too large.

I do not know the distinguishing characteristics of the above Fournier forgeries, but I do know that Fournier used the cancel "PARIS 23 JANV. 49 (60)" as in the above forgery of the 1 F. Click here for more Fournier forgeries of France. In my view, the second "S" of "POSTES" is too curved at the top in the Fournier forgeries.


A tete-beche pair of 25 c blue forgeries.


A different type 15 c Fournier forgery.

Fournier has used forged cancels, examples of these forged cancels (taken from a Fournier Album):

Fournier has also used other forged cancels. Fournier used these cancels on his forgeries. I don't have any further information at this moment.

 

Third forgery type (Fournier?):

The '0' of '10' is too thin in this forgery
Forgeries possibly sold by Fournier, note the very large eye of Ceres and the bad quality of the letters, for example the first "S" of "POSTES" has a very large bottom loop and small upper loop. I've also seen the 15 c green of this particular forgery set and a 1 F tete-beche pair.

 

Fourth forgery type (Fournier?):

 

The only copy with this cancel I've seen sofar
(Forgeries of the 15 c, 20 c, 40 c and 1 F)

In the above forgeries, the hair just above the forehead is quite different from the genuine stamps. Also note the insertion of the value part (especially visible in the 20 c forgery). I've been told that these forgeries were also sold by Fournier (could this be the second choice forgeries that he offers?). Other sources say these forgeries were made by Spiro (also called Hamburg forgery). I have also seen the 10 c brown (with cancel), 15 c green (with and without cancel) and the 20 c black (with and without cancel) and 25 c blue (with and without cancel). I've seen these forgeries cancelled with parts of a dot cancel with "DS23" in the center.

In the above stamps a 25 c and 1 F of this forgery is found printed together with a Napoleon III forgery of the same value. This proves that these two stamps were made by the same forger.
I've seen a whole sheet of 1 F forgeries, with on the left part (3 columns of 9 stamps) the Napolean forgeries and on the right (3 columns of 9 stamps as well) the Ceres stamps. The Napoleon stamps had parts of a "DS23" cancel and the Ceres stamps various grill cancels applied to it on this sheet. Apparently these cancels were printed on the sheet (since they appear often in the same spot). I've also seen a sheet with forged 25 c Napoleon (3 columns of 9 stamps at the left) and Ceres stamps (3 columns of 9 stamps at the right) with the same cancels applied to it.
Another sheet shows 3x9 Napoleon 10 c stamps on the left and 3x9 Ceres 10 c stamps on the right, all in the color brown. These were clearly made from the 1 F sheet, since the third stamp in the fifth row (Napoleon, see image above) and the sixth stamp of the bottom row (Ceres) did not have the 1 F changed to 10 c and can thus be considered as misprints of the 1 F values in the color brown instead of red.
I've also seen a whole sheet of 15 c, 20 c and 40 c forged Ceres stamps (all 6 x 9 columns) all with the same pattern of cancels applied to it. But I've also seen uncancelled sheets.


Here with a "BO*TUK" cancel which also exists on stamps of Western Australia, Bahamas and St.Helena.

 

 

For more forgeries of the France Ceres type click here, part 2, or France Ceres type, forgeries, part 1 or here for Sperati forgeries, part 1 or Sperati forgeries, part 2.


Copyright by Evert Klaseboer