Home Catalogue index Volume 1 index Volume 2 index

Preview of Stamps Catalogue: VOLUME 1

MAURITIUS 1858 Sitting Brittania issue

Return To Catalogue - Issues of 1847-1859 - Issues of 1860-1895 - Issues of 1896-1920 and miscellaneous

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.

Previous issues of Mauritius 1847-1859 with Queen Victoria

1858 Sitting Brittania, ship on the background

No value indicated
  (4 p) green
  (6 p) red
  (9 p) lilac
  'FOUR PENCE' on (4 p) green

(non issued stamps)

Perforated and overprinted 'L.P.E.1890.' in red

Stamps in brown, brown on blue or blue (see 2 pictures above) were non issued. They exist with overprint 'L.P.E. 1890' for a London Philatelic Exhibition where they were distributed as souvenirs.

With value indicated, imperforated

  6 p blue
  6 p violet to grey
  1 Sh red
  1 Sh green

With value indicated, perforated

  6 p violet
  1 Sh green

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

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

Cancels:

Five-ring circular cancel (I've seen another type with the central circle larger) and three-ring cancel with numeral inside (here '1' for Mahebourg).

Forgeries, examples:

Spiro/Fournier forgery:

The above forgery with no value indication ('Mauritius' below) can be recognized with: 1) the 'M' of 'MAURITIUS' is closer to beginning of the name label than the 'S' to the end. 2) There is a white dot on the hat of the sitting woman. 3) The sea below the ship looks more like a 'bubble bath'. Though this stamp can be found in 'Fourniers album of philatelic forgeries' I don't think Fournier actually made this forgery, it could have been made by Spiro. The postmark on these forgeries mostly seems to be 4 concentric circles. However, other cancels exist:

A poor attempt to apply a more credible cancel to this forgery.

Other Spiro/Fournier forgeries (with value indication):

Forgery taken from a Fournier album

I've seen this forgery in the colours violet, brown and green.

Five varieties of the 6 p (I don't know which ones, but I presume these stamps include those 3 without any value indication) are offered by Fournier for 1.25 Swiss Francs in his 1914 pricelist. Besides the cancel with rings (as shown above), I have also seen these forgeries cancelled with 4 rows of dots. Note the strange shape of the 'R' of 'MAURITIUS'

Forged overprint (taken from a Fournier album)

Third forgery of Album Weeds (stamps with no value-indication):

3 subtypes, with the staff pointing towards the left, center and right hand side of the first "U" of "MAURITIUS".

The third forgery for the stamps without value indication of 'Album Weeds' can easily be detected by the background pattern. A coloured outline can be found all around the stamp, then a white space and then a wave-like pattern. I've seen two different types of these forgeries (see images above), I've been told that all these types were made by the forger Oneglia. The genuine stamps don't have this pattern. Similar forgeries were made for Trinidad (in many colours) and Barbados:

(Mauritius forgery next to similar forgeries of Trinidad and Barbados)

Other forgeries:

Very primitive forgeries, also with a totally wrong "Four Pence" overprint.

Some surcharged stamps, are these proofs?

I have also seen the non-issued blue stamp (with no value indication), chemically changed to the colour green.

For issues from 1860 to 1895 click here.

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer