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MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN, MECKLENBURG STRELITZ

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MECKLENBURG - SCHWERIN

One of the German States. A duchy in Northern Germany. It issued stamps from 1856 to 1867, From then on it used the stamps of the North German Confederation.

1856 Arms of Mecklenburg-Schwerin: Cow with crown in a rectangle

  2 Schillinge purple
  3 Schillinge orange
  3 Schillinge yellow
  5 Schillinge blue
  5 Schillinge brown

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

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

Cancels:

(I've been told that this is a Rostock cancel, consisting of dots)

Forgeries:

Fournier forgeries

Fournier sold two forgeries of these stamps, he offers them in his 1914 pricelist as 1st choice forgeries for 6 Swiss Francs (6 values, including the 4/4 Sch of the following issue) or second choice forgeries for 2 Swiss Francs:

(Fournier forgery, first and second choice? Enlarged pictures)

(Inverted 'S')

According to 'The forged stamps of all countries' by J.Dorn the tips of the horns should be open in the genuine stamps and there should be 4 dots between the tips of the horns. As far as I can see the tips of the horns are closed in the Fournier forgeries. Note, that the 'S' of 'SCHILLINGE' in the second stamp looks inverted. The following stamps are Fournier forgeries as well:

On the above Fournier forgeries a two-ring cancel can be found with cityname, but with no indication of the date. I have seen 'SCHWERIN' and 'GUSTROW' (others might exist).

Also the following cancels were used by Fournier on his forgeries (the first choice ones I presume, pictures taken from a Fournier album):

(Reduced sizes)

I expect the above stamp to be a Fournier forgery as well, it has the cancel 'SCHWERIN 1 8 BAHNHOF' and can be found in a Fournier album.

Other forgery

In the next stamp, the crown almost touches the upper label with 'FREIMARKE', I don't know who made this forgery:

(Forgery)

There are not enough dots inside the shield in the above forgery.

And another forgery

I have serious doubts about the next two stamps:

(Forgeries?)

Other forgeries and forged postmarks on genuine stamps exist.

1856 4 small stamps of 1/4 Schilling forming 1 Schilling, imperforate or rouletted

  4/4 Schillinge red

For the specialist: two types of these stamps exist, with and without dots behind the background, example of a stamp with dots:

These stamps have identical designs, the dots were removed from the design in October 1864 (the stamps with dots were issued in 1856).

Value of the stamps
vc = very common c = common * = not so common ** = uncommon		*** = very uncommon R = rare RR = very rare RRR = extremely rare
Value	Unused	Used	Remarks
4/4 S	RR	RR	Imperforate, with dots in background
4/4 S	RRR	RRR	Rouletted, with dots
4/4 S	R	RR	Rouletted, without dots

Forgeries:

First forgery of Album Weeds (stamp without dots)

(Forgeries, enlarged sizes)

This forgery is printed in black according to Album Weeds (but I have also seen it in blue). The horns are quite different from the genuine stamps. The horns touch the line under 'FREIMARKE' and the ring in the bull's nose touches the line above 'SCHILLINGE' (in the genuine stamps, they don't touch these lines). In the genuine stamps, there should be a stop behind the 'B' of 'MECKLENB'. There are many more differences between the above forgeries and the genuine stamps.

Fournier forgery(?)

(Fournier forgery, enlarged size)

Fournier also sold forgeries of these stamps (first and second choice forgeries are offered in his 1914 pricelist). I think the stamps above are some of these second choice forgeries (note the cancel without any date, that can also be found on forgeries offered by Fournier of the larger stamps). Note also that the 'F' of 'FREIMARKE' is almost touching the line left to it. The next stamp is a Fournier first choice forgery with 'DOMITZ 6 1' double circle cancel:

I have also seen a Fournier forgery of this value with the cancel 'WISMAR 13 17' (as in the above pictures of forged Fournier cancels).

Envelopes

1856 Arms of Mecklenburg Schwerin in an oval

  1 Schilling red
  1 1/2 Schillinge green
  2 Schillinge lilac
  3 Schillinge orange
  5 Schillinge blue
  5 Schillinge brown

Forgeries of these envelopes exist made by the forger Fohl, examples:

A large stock of these forgeries was discovered, overprinted with the word 'Falsch' (=forged in German), and distributed with various stamp journals. The above examples are such forgeries with this overprint.

Fiscal Stamps

1874 Bull's head with crown, inscription 'STEMPEL MARKE'

The following values were issued: 10 p orange, 15 p grey, 20 p grey, 25 p brown, 50 p green, 1 M blue, 1 1/4 M brown, 2 M red and 3 M lilac.

1874 onwards, with embossed central part

Four values exist (5 M green, 10 M red, 20 M blue and 30 M violet) with different year (inscribed at the bottom) ranging from 1874 to 1913? Some differences in size also seem to exist.

MECKLENBURG - STRELITZ

One of the German States. A duchy in Northern Germany. It issued stamps from 1864 to 1867, From then on it used the stamps of the North German Confederation.

1864 Arms of Mecklenburg-Strelitz: Cow with crown in a rectangle (embossed)

  1/4 Silb. Gr. orange
  1/3 Silb. Gr. green
  1 Schilling lilac

Other frame

  1 Silb. Gr. red
  2 Silb. Gr. blue
  3 Silb. Gr. brown

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

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

Forgeries of the 1 Sgr and 2 Sgr are described in Album Weeds. I don't have any pictures of those forgeries right now. Forged cancels seem to be abundant. If anybody has more information about forgeries or forged cancels, please contact me!

Envelopes

1864 Design as postage stamps, overprinted with 'POST-COUVERT' and value at the upper right corner

  1 Silb. Gr. red
  2 Silb. Gr. blue
  3 Silb. Gr. brown

Fiscal stamps

No country name indicated, arms of 'Mecklenburg' (bull's head):

(reduced sizes)

Railway stamps

Example, 'Grossh. Mecklenb. Friedrich Franz Eisenbahn':

(Reduced size)

I have seen the values 50 p violet, 60 p blue and 70 p red.

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer

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