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Preview of Stamps Catalogue: VOLUME 1

HAMBURG (Germany), 1864 issue

Return To Catalogue - Hamburg 1859 issue - Hamburg 1866 issue - Hamburg, cancels - Hamburg, forgeries of the 1859 issue - Miscellaneous - Private issues (Boten issues), part 1 - Private issues (Boten issues), part 2 - Private issues (Boten issues), part 3 - Other private issues

Currency: 1 Hamburg Mark = 16 Schilling

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One of the German States. A Free City of the Hansa in the north of Germany. Cuxhaven also belonged to Hamburg. It issued stamps from 1859 to 1867. Afterwards it used the stamps of the North German Confederation (from 1st of January 1868 onwards). There also exist private issues for Hamburg and so-called Boten (messenger) issues. Postoffices of Thurn and Taxis, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden/Norway, Hannover and Mecklenburg existed in the city of Hamburg. The majority of foreign letters were send by the Thurn and Taxis post office.

Hamburg 1859 issue

1864 As 1859 issue but design changed, imperforate or perforated (1864-65)

  1 1/4 Schilling lilac
  2 1/2 Schilling green

2 1/2 Sch with watermark seen from the backside with a numeral '2' Danish postmark.

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

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

Reprints:

Probably a reprint.

For the specialist: these stamps have a watermark wavy lines. Reprints were made in 1872, but these reprints don't have any watermark, are printed on yellowish paper and have thinner 'guidelines' between the stamps. Genuine stamps have perforation 13 1/2. Some reprints have perforation 11 1/2. The reprints exist in all kind of color shades (as the genuine stamps). They were made by the printer of the genuine stamps C.Adler of Hamburg and later sold by the stamp dealer Julius Goldner. At first the same perforation machines were used as for the genuine stamps, but later a new perforation machine which perforated the stamps 11 1/2 instead of 13 1/2 was used.
A very small number of reprints on watermarked paper also exist. Goldner also ordered some reprints of non-existing essays (on unwatermarked paper) with the colors inverted, thus 1 1/4 s green and 2 1/2 s lilac. Furthermore some phantasy prints were made of both stamps in bogus colors. For a full description of the history of these reprints, see Ohrt, Handbuch der Neudrucke (in German).

'Essay' reprint of a 1 1/4 Sch green

'Essay' reprints in various colors.

Forgeries:

Forgeries are relatively much less common than reprints, but they do exist. The Serrane guide says that forgeries exist from Geneva (Fournier) and Charlottenburg. Some examples:

This is probably a forgery, the letters are different, for example the 'g' of 'Schilling' is placed too much to the right and does not touch the line to the left of it. There is no dot behind the word 'halb'.

This is possibly the first forgery described in Album Weeds: the dot behind 'g' of 'Schilling' is placed too high. The third row of bricks seen from the bottom is slightly thinner than the other two layers.

Second forgery of the 2 1/2 Sch of Album Weeds. The first layer of bricks at the bottom of the stamp is about twice as thick as the second and third layer. Also, the dot behind the 'g' of 'Schilling' is placed too close to the square above it (it should be evenly placed between the "g" and this square). The numeral cancel '2' as shown on the second forgery does exist as a genuine cancel (Danish cancel). In Ragatz' Fournier Album such a forgery can also be found, but perforated 12 1/2 (as in the above forgery; genuine Hamburg stamps always have perforation 13 1/2). I've also seen the imperforate stamp with a parallel lines cancel. Click here for other German States forgeries which were probably made by the same forger.

Very dubious item. The "c" of "Schilling" is different.

Another highly dubious 2 1/2 Sch stamp. The star above the large '2' almost touches the '2'. The crosses in the corners don't have any shading.

I've seen a Fournier forgery of the 1 1/4 Sch stamp with cancel "HAMBURG BAHNHOF 21 11 65 8-10 1/2 N" in a single circle as described behind the 1859 issue. Fournier also sold forgeries of the 2 1/2 Sch value.

A page of a Fournier Album with forgeries of the 1 1/4 and 2 1/2 Sch; Fournier seems to have sold many shaded of these forgeries. I'm not sure if Fournier actually made a new set of forgeries, or sold the reprints as mentioned above.

Another page from a Fournier album

Another page with Fournier forgeries.

Fournier's forged cancels taken from a Fournier Album, reduced sizes

Probably Fournier forgeries, they have the same cancels as shown above in the Fournier Album.

Other forgery of the 1 1/4 s stamp. There is no "." behind the word "POSTMARKE". Album Weeds describes three different types of forgeries without this dot behind "POSTMARKE". The genuine stamps have 10 irregular lines on the right hand side door, while this forgery has 8 very neatly drawn lines.

Other forgery without dot behind "POSTMARKE". The "A" of "HAMBURG" has no upper serif.

Hamburg 1866 issue

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer