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MAURITIUS 1847-1859

Return To Catalogue - Mauritius 1847 forgeries - 1858 sitting Brittania issue - Issues of 1860-1895 - Issues of 1896-1920 and miscellaneous

Currency: 12 pence = 1 Shilling; 20 Shillings = 1 Pound
1878: 100 Cents = 1 Rupie

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1847 Queen Vicoria, inscription 'POST OFFICE'

(Genuine stamp, Reduced size, note that the 'A' and 'U' of Mauritius are damaged)

  1 p orange
  2 p blue

These stamps are extremely rare. Of the 1 p red 2 unused specimens and 11 used specimens are known. Of the 'blue Mauritius' (the 2 p blue) only 500 stamps were printed in 1847, only 12 stamps are known to have survived upto today; 6 used (3 on letter) and 6 unused. Of the orange 1 p value 14 values has survived. The Communication Museum in the Hague posseses one of these 2 p stamps (the first picture above). They dedictated a website to this stamp (in dutch). The 1 p was used for local letters in Port Louis, the 2 p for letters to other places within Mauritius. It is said that the engraver of these stamps, Joseph Osmond Barnard, made a mistake when he put 'POST OFFICE' on the left side of the stamp. If this is really true, or just a nice story, I don't know. Fact is, that it is replaced by 'POST PAID' in the next serie. 500 of each value were printed. Many of them ended up on invitation letters from the wife of the governor William Maynard Gomm for a masked ball, who used them on 21st September 1847 (which is also the first time these stamps were ever used). After a few days, all the stamps were sold out. A few of the invitation letters of the wife of Gomm have survived. These two stamps are the first stamps issued by a British colony. One famous letter, the Bordeaux letter (named after the place of discovery) bears a 1 p and a 2 p. This letter was owned by famous collectors as Arthur Hind. It was sold to a Singaporean collector in 1993 for about 3.5 US$.

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 p	RRR	RRR
2 p	RRR	RRR

For reprints and forgeries of these stamps click here.

1848 Queen Victoria, inscription 'POST PAID'

  1 p red
  2 p blue

For the specialist, there are 12 types of each of this stamp.

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 p	RRR	RR
2 p	RRR	RRR

Misprint 'PENOE' instead of 'PENCE':

Cancels:

Typical cancels:

Forgeries:

Examples:

Forgeries with 'Facsimile' overprint (and subsequently removed again on the second stamp):

1859 Queen Victoria, head of queen changed

  2 p blue (12 types)

This stamp is called 'fillet head', it was a re-engraved by Sherwin from the plates of the 1848 stamps. There are 12 types of this stamp.

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
2 p	RRR	RRR

Forgeries, example:

(A forgery made by Peter Winter)

(Forgeries made by Oneglia)

1859 Queen Victoria, head of queen changed, so called Lapirot issue

  2 p blue on blue (12 types)

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

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

Forgeries:

example:

(A forgery made by Peter Winter)

I've been told that the next stamp is a reprint, but I think it is an ordinary forgery:

1859 Queen Victoria, with Greec motifs left and right

  1 p red
  2 p blue

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

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

Forgeries:

examples:

(Reduced size)

The above two stamps must be second forgery of the 1 p described in Album Weeds: The 'S' of 'MAURITIUS' is like an ordinary 'S', but in the genuine stamps it is like a reversed 'Z'. There is no stop behind 'MAURITIUS', in the genuine stamps there always is a stop. In the genuine the letters of 'ONE PENNY' are smaller than the letters of 'MAURITIUS', in this forgery they all have the same size. The 'M' and the 'S' of 'MAURITIUS' are at an equal distance from the flower like ornaments in the corners. In the genuine stamp, the stop and the 'M' of 'MAURITIUS' are at an equal distance from these ornaments. There is no white dot in the flower in the left top corner (not clearly visible in the above forgeries). The 'M' of 'MAURITIUS' is always badly shaped. There are not the same number of lines in the left and right side of the stamp (the brick alike pattern). As cancels of the originals Album Weeds states the cancel we can see on the first forgery above (an empty center with 4 horizontal lines above and below and slightly curved lines vertically at both sides) or a circle with 'PAID' inside. The cancel of the second forgery (a diamond with horizontal lines across it) was never used in Mauritius and is an easy test to quickly identify this forgery in this case. I've also seen the 1 p value with a cancel consisting of 4 concentric circles. The 2 p blue forgeries are probably made by the same forger. I've seen the 2 p being offered on a prestigious internet auction as being genuine....

(Other forgeries of the 2 p, reduced sizes)

(Senf forgery, 'FACSIMILE' added in the design)

Mauritius 1858 sitting Brittania issue

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer

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