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Preview of Stamps Catalogue CD : VOLUME 1

BRITISH GUIANA 1850-1859

Return To Catalogue - Issues of 1860-1875 - Issues of 1876-1920 - Miscellaneous

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1850 Circle with inscription 'BRITISH' on top 'GUIANA' at the bottom, value in the center and signature

(Genuine stamps )

  2 c black on red
  4 c black on yellow
  8 c black on green
  12 c black on blue

These stamps are commonly known under the name 'cottonreels' or 'cotton spool stamps'. All these stamps are extremely rare. The 2 c is the rarest (it was only discovered in 1877! Ten of such stamps are known to exits, among them 3 pairs, no uncancelled 2 c stamps are known). A signature of the postmaster can be found on all used stamps (to prevent fraud).

Forgeries, examples:

(forgery)

Forgeries, reduced sizes

(and some more forgeries, even with wrong colours!)

(probably some other forgeries)

1852 Ship in a shield

Images reproduced with permission from: http://www.sandafayre.com

(reduced size, genuine)

(Certified genuine)

(Most likely genuine)

(Probably forgeries)

  1 c black on red
  4 c black on blue

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

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

Forgeries, examples (by the way I think the above stamps could be forged as well):

(Reduced sizes)

Perforated (perforation 12 1/2) reprints exist:

(perforated reprints or forgeries?)

I don't know if the above perforated stamps are the reprints, they are probably just forgeries. Some reprints exist with the perforation cut off, pretending to be genuine stamps.

The forger Peter Winter also has made forgeries of these stamps. They were produced in the 1980's. I suspect the next stamps to be such forgeries:

Peter Winter forgeries?

(Winter forgeries with 'A B G C 4 DE 7 1854' cancel)

1853 Ship in an ellipse, in corners '1853', 'POSTAGE' on top, imperforated

(Reduced size)

  One cent red 
  Four cents blue 

Some perforated reprints exist. They also exist with the perforation cut off, pretending to be genuine stamps. Specialists distinguish three types of these stamps, type 1 without whit line above the value-inscription, type 2 with such a line and type 3 (4 c only) with the numbers in the corners with white outline.

(4 c type 3, with outline around the numbers in the corners)

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
1 c	RRR	RRR
4 c	RRR	RRR
Reprints	R	-

Forgeries exist, examples:

(Forgeries)

(This stamp was offered as genuine on a prestigious Internet auction in 2004, however, it doesn't resemble the above genuine stamps; forgery?)

1856 Ship, imperforated, black on coloured paper

  1 c black on red
  4 c black on red
  4 c black on blue

Only one stamp exists of the 1 c value. This unique stamp was sold on an Siegel auction in 1980 for a record sum of $935.000 (source: http://www.siegelauctions.com/home.htm) to John E. du Pont (initially it was not known who exactly bought the stamp). The stamp was found in 1873 by a 12 year old schoolboy, Vernon Vaughn, in Demerara. It was sold to N.R. McKinnon (McKenner?), for $1.50. McKinnon sold it to Wylie Hill in Great Britain. Thomas Ridpath paid $600 for it and it then ended up in the collection of Count Phillipe von Ferrari in the 1880's for £150 (about $750). It was then confiscated by the French (to repay for the war damage by the Germans after world war I). This very famous stamp was then sold in a public auction in 1922 for 325000 French Francs, paid by Arthur Hind. It used to be part of the Hind collection untill he died. It was then owned by a certain Frederic T. Small. In 1970 it was sold at a Siegel auction for $280.000 to a consortium led by the stamp dealer Weinberg. Recently the forger(!) Peter Winter claimed to have found a second example of this stamp. But after a lot of commotion it was finally declared an altered example of a damaged 4 c stamp after examination by the Royal Philatelic Society of London.

(The second copy of this stamp turned out to be a forgery)

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
1 c	--	RRR
4 c black on red	RRR	RRR
4 c black on blue	RRR	RRR

Forgeries, examples:

Fournier(?) forgeries:

Fournier offers the above forgery in his 1914 pricelist as a second choice forgery (2 different stamps, differing in the colour I presume, for 1 Swiss Franc). There are many differences with the genuine stamps (for example the ship is entirely different). The word 'Que' is written as 'que'.

Another forgery:

The genuine stamps (according to 'The forged stamps of all countries' by J.Dorn') should have the frame open in the corners. The 'Q' of 'Que' should not be a 'q' as in the above forgeries!

Forgery with 'FACSIMILE' written at the bottom

Forgery

A recent (1980?) Peter Winter forgery with the right 'Q':

Above another two forgeries on letter with the right 'Q' (Peter Winter forgeries as well) adressed to 'The Lord Bishop of Guiana Georgetown'.

For issues of 1860-1875 click here.

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer

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Preview of Stamps Catalogue CD : VOLUME 1