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Preview of Stamps Catalogue: VOLUME 1

TAHITI 1882-1892

Return To Catalogue - Tahiti, 1893-1921 - Tahiti, postage due stamps with "TAHITI" - Tahiti, postage due stamps with "1893 TAHITI" - French Oceanic Settlements

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Stamps of the French colonies used in Tahiti, example:

Forged stamps with forged "PAPEETE 3E/14 FEVR" cancel. The second forgery type also exists with additional "TAHITI" overprint. Probably made by the forger Oneglia.

Some joke stamp, a British Colonies type with Queen Victoria(!), with "FRENCH TAHITI" inscription.

1882 Stamps of the French colonies, surcharged

  "TAHITI 5 c" on 20 c red on green (1884)
  "TAHITI 10 c" on 20 c red on green (1884)
  "TAHITI 25 c" on 35 c grey on yellow
  "25 c" on 35 c grey on yellow
  "25 c" on 40 c orange
  "TAHITI 25 c" on 1 F green (1884)
  

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

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

In https://www.franceandcolonies.org/philatelist/111.pdf it is stated that all of these overprints are of dubious character. For the 25 c on 35 c without "TAHITI" it is suspicious that there are exactly the same number of errors (inverted, reading up or reading down) as normal stamps. Similar remarks for the 25 on 40 c value.
The "TAHITI 25 c" on 35 c appears to have been entirely unneccesary and printed only for philatelic purposes (the above mentioned article talks about fraud).
The 25 c on 1 F, the 5 c on 20 c and the 10 c on 20 c were again printed in four equally distributed varieties: printed correctly, upside down, reading upwards and reading downwards.
It even appears that the cancels on these stamps were carefully applied to conform to the orientation of the errors.

My Senf catalogue of 1938 states that 'reprints' were made in great quantities originating from Marseilles of all values except 25 c on 40 c.

Forgeries exist, example:

Forgeries

(Forged overprint on genuine stamp, the cancel reads "GUADELOUPE"!)

A 'misprint' "THAITI", however, this stamp is a forgery made from a genuine French perforated stamp (the perforation can still be seen at the bottom left) which was cancelled in Paris.....

Forgeries of this issue and two from the next; the basic stamps, the overprints and the cancels are forged. All three bear the same cancel "PAPEETE 3E/14 FEVR 83". They are probably all made by the stamp forger Oneglia.

Page with forged Fournier overprints, on the top left the forged Tahiti overprints. Image obtained from http://asppi.org/faux.php?affichage=fournier_fr

Forged Fournier cancels, reduced sizes.

Two other forgeries. The stamp, overprint and cancel are forged. The perforation in the corners does not match.

A genuine French Colonies stamp. However the signature at the back is from "G.CARION PARIS", Georges Carion is known to have been involved in a scandal with forged Tahiti overprints, this might be one of these forgeries?

Similar overprints with "GAMBIERS", "TUAMOTU" and "I.S. LE VT" are bogus stamps probably made in the 1880's. See https://www.franceandcolonies.org/philatelist/206.pdf for examples. A forged cancel "GAMBIERS 10 MARS 87 OCEANIE" can sometimes be found on these fantasies. I have never seen these bogus stamps.

1884 Provisional overprint on letters and newspapers

In 1884 a lack of stamps occured in Tahiti. Letters and newspapers were overprinted with the following cancel 'TAHITI 5 C':

(Newspaper wrapper 'LA CLOCHE' with this cancel)

It seems that similar overprints also exists with a value of 10 c, 10 c + 5 c and 10 c + 25 c.

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

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

Tahiti, 1893-1921

For Tahiti, postage due stamps with "TAHITI", click here or Tahiti, postage due stamps with "1893 TAHITI", click here.

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer