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Preview of Stamps Catalogue: VOLUME 1 |
Sachsen - Saxe
Return To Catalogue - Forgeries of the first issue, part 1 - Forgeries of the first issue, part 2 - Forgeries of the first issue, part 3 - Forgeries of the first issue, Sperati forgeries - Forgeries of the first issue, Peter Winter forgeries - Saxony other issues 1851 onwards - Saxony cancels - Other German States - Germany - Later issues (1945) for Saxony
Note: on my website many of the
pictures can not be seen! They are of course present in the catalogue;
contact me if you want to purchase it.
One of the German States. A Kingdom in the east of Germany. It issued stamps from 1850 to 1867, it used the stamps of the North German Confederation afterwards.
3 Pfennige red
This stamp is very rare. It was issued on 1st July of 1850 and
was the second stamp issued in Germany, in german it is called
'Sachsendreier'. It was used for tie wrappers to newspapers, and
therefore many of the stamps were destroyed when the wrapper was
removed. About 460,000 stamps were issued, but only 3000 to 4000
are thought to have survived now. Only one whole sheet (4 rows of
5 stamps) is known to exist and was discovered in 1871 in the
post office of the town of Eibenstock (information found on
http://www.dresden-dresden.de/dreier.htm). The stamps were
printed by J.B.Hirschfeld in Leipzig. It was replaced by the 3 p
green stamp on 1st August 1851.
In total six different printing plates of each 20 stamps exist.
Three different shades of red exist. Due to the printing process,
size differences of individual stamps can exist (up to 1 mm).
Value of the stamps |
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vc = very common c = common * = not so common ** = uncommon |
*** = very uncommon R = rare RR = very rare RRR = extremely rare |
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Value | Unused | Used | Remarks |
3 p | RRR | RRR | Exists in several shades of red. Printed in sheets of 20. Small size differences exist. |
According to the 'Praktisches Handbuch der Freimarken des Konigreichs Sachsen' by Friedrich W.Dieck, 1921; the Hirschfeld made black proofs of these stamps. Hirschfeld printed 25,000 sheets of stamps (Dieck mentions 500,000 stamps in 8 different printings explaining the slight colour differences). One sheet was send to the ministry of Finance in Dresden. This sheet was later cut and the stamps sold individually for 3 Marks to collectors 'with connections'. 463,058 stamps were sold up to 12 September 1851 and the remainder of 36,992 stamps were burnt on 10 December 1851 in the Main Post Office Building in Leipzig.
Block of four that once belonged to the famous collector Ferrari
The only surviving block of 20 stamps, image obtained from
https://www.stampsx.com/forum/topic.php?id=398&s=55361ef6ee752019cf69c0f7eb10fdaa,
it once belonged to the stamp collector Ferrari,
and was sold as item 546 in the VIth Ferrari auction. The stamps
on this sheet were extensively repaired.
This is how the sheet originally looked like.
If my information is correct, these stamps were printed in 6 different plates, the lines between the stamps are either according to the so-called Bavarian system (continuous vertical lines as in the above sheet, this was done for plate 5), or the Saxon system (continuous horizontal lines, in all other plates).
Stamp with the same characteristics as the third stamp on the
first row: red dot in the lower part of the "3" and
smudge in the first "E" of "PFENNIGE".
Cancels
When they were first issued, the stamps were supposed to be cancelled by black pen (Federstrichentwertung) in a cross-like manner in such a way that the cross would cover the newspaper wrapper as well. Next to it a towncancel was supposed to be applied.
On the 5th July 1850 this compulsary cancellation system was changed to a towncancel in black (Ortsstempel in schwarzer Farbe).
Other cancels are very rare (and usually forgeries).
Forgeries
Attention: many forgeries exist of this
stamp. Click here for more information on
the forgeries of the first issue, part 1, part 2, or part 3
or Sperati forgeries or Peter Winter forgeries. The great
majority of stamps that I have seen were forgeries!
The following text (in German) can be found in the 'Praktisches
Handbuch der Freimarken des Konigreichs Sachsen' by Friedrich
W.Dieck, 1921 (see also http://www.archive.org) concerning
forgeries:
Die Fälschungen der Dreiermarke sind ebenso zahlreich, wie
teilweise hervorragend gut ausgeführt. Die ersten Fälschungen
stammen schon aus den 50er Jahren und wurden in
Buchdruckausführung von Nürnberg (Zechmeyer),
später in Steindruck von Hamburg (Goldner
und andere) aus vertrieben. Sehr gute Steindruckfälschungen
wurden Ende der 80er Jahre von Dresden aus (Elb und Fohl)
angeboten, sind aber leicht an dem auf echten Marken fast nie
vorkommenden Vollgitterstempel zu erkennen. Auch das von
Gebrüder Senf
seinerzeit herausgegebene Faksimile auf geglättetem
Schreibpapier wurde durch Entfernung des Aufdrucks
"Falsch" und Ueberstempelung der Rasur "echt"
gemacht. Die Stahlstichfälschung (1890) von Thiele, Hannover,
ist daran zu erkennen, daß die Schraffur der großen Wertziffer
aus Punkten und nicht aus kleinen "3" besteht. Die
beste Fälschung ist der berüchtigte Lichtdruck des
Photographien Schröder, der Ende der 70er Jahre in der Leipziger
Lichtdruckanstalt von Naumann & Schröder ausgeführt und in
Zeichnung, Papier und Farbe vom Original kaum zu unterscheiden
ist. Man erkennt ihn eigentlich nur daran, daß der Druck, wenn
man ihn schräg gegen das Licht hält, vollkommen flach und glatt
erscheint, während die im Buchdruckverfahren hergestellten
Originale rauh, an den Druckstellen etwas vertieft und
rückseitig durchscheinend sind. Die Farbe des Lichtdrucks ist
mehr kirsch- als ziegelrot, und das sehr glatte Papier hat einen
leicht bläulichen Schein, während das der Originale mehr
gelblich ist.
Daß sich anscheinend auch das Ausland an den Fälschungen
beteiligt, schließe ich daraus, daß ich kürzlich aus Paris
eine Fälschung mit dem Ortsstempel "Risa" statt Riesa
erhielt.
In allerletzter Zeit werden nach Thier vorzügliche Fälschungen,
anscheinend von Sachsen aus, mit Gitterstempel oder mit dem
Doppelkreisstempel Leipzig 21. Oct. 50, in der Mitte 5 - 5 1/2,
vertrieben.
Miscellaneous: Inscription "DRESDEN" instead of "SACHSEN", Local issue of the city of Dresden issued in 1900 to commemorative the 50th birthday of the 'Sachsendreier':
3 Pfennige green
Value of the stamps |
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vc = very common c = common * = not so common ** = uncommon |
*** = very uncommon R = rare RR = very rare RRR = extremely rare |
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Value | Unused | Used | Remarks |
3 p | RR | RR | Intended to be used on printed matter. 12,500,000 stamps printed |
These stamps have been forged. On the horizontal band of the shield, there should be shadelines.
The above forgeries are made by the forger Fournier and are taken from 'The Fournier Album of Philatelic Forgeries'. I think it is actually reprinted by the Philatelic Association of Geneva especially for this book (they added the overprint 'FAUX', which means 'forged' in English). Fournier did not sell his forgeries with the large green margin as shown above. The ornaments above the first 'S' and 'N' of 'SACHSEN' are not close enough to the frameline above them when compared to genuine stamps. According to the Serrane guide, the genuine stamp has the left hand side of the cross (on the crown) detached from the rest of it. The Fournier forgery has it attached. Also, the shading around the outer edges of the arms is too heavy in the Fournier forgery. It exists with the following forged 'LEIPZIG 11 MAI 63' cancel (see third image above):
Numeral cancel '6', 'LEIPZIG 11 MAI 63' and 'LEIPZIG 5 1/2 - 6',
reduced sizes (Fournier forged cancels)
The Serrane guide mentions two old German forgeries. One of them has three rows of dots in the arms design (instead of two rows) and no dot behind 'SACHSEN'. A second one has the 'D' slanting(?) and 10 pearls in the crown's outer branches (should be seven). I have never seen these forgeries.
I have seen many forgeries with the cancel 'DRESDEN 17 VIII 61 2', (I have even seen this forgery in strips of 3), these are modern reproductions:
(Forgery)
The same(?) forgery was also offered in a pair of two with two grill cancels (no number inside) on Ebay recently (September 2003).
(Another pair of forgeries from the same source)
I posess a Peter Winter forgery of this stamp (made around 1980). This forgery is printed on very white paper. So-called 'proofs' or 'Farbenentwürfe' in six different colours and the center in black (with blank spaces where the value should have been) are from the same source. Example of such forgery and a 'proof':
(Winter forgeries, second one of a 'proof')
('proof', reduced size)
I have seen 'proofs' in the colours light-brown
and black, dark-brown and black, green and black, dark-blue and
black, light-blue and black and orange and black. They are trying
to imitate so-called Hirschfeld proofs.
I've been told that the original proofs were not made in two
colours and do not have a distinctive point at the bottom of the
crest. The original Hirschfeld proofs were made in 1900 for the
100 years existence of the Hirschfeld firm in the colours yellow
and black, blue and black, green and black, red and black,
light-brown and black and dark-brown and black. They have no
value inscription.
I've seen two other genuine Hirschfeld proofs (also made in 1900) in the colours black on green and green on green. These ones do have the value 'Drei Pfennige'.
I know that the forger Sperati also made forgeries of this stamp (Reproduction 'A' and Reproduction 'B'). If my information is correct, in Reproduction 'B', the 'A' of 'SACHSEN' has a break at the left hand side and the 'E' of this same word has a break in the bottom. Sorry, no picture available yet.
What is this? A black on lilac stamp. Also a lilac stamp
(different design, for example no dot behind
"SACHSEN").