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TAHITI, Postage Due Stamps with "1893 TAHITI" and unoverprinted stamps

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

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1893 Postage due stamps of the french colonies overprinted "1893 TAHITI"

(Image obtained from a Sandafayre auction)

(Image obtained from a Feldman auction)

(Could be forgeries!)

  1 c black
  2 c black
  3 c black
  4 c black
  5 c black
  10 c black
  15 c black
  20 c black
  30 c black
  40 c black
  60 c black
  1 F brown
  2 F brown

All these overprints are rare! In the 'France and Colonies Specialist' 267 of January 2002, https://www.franceandcolonies.org/philatelist/266.pdf the author, M.Beslu, believes that: "no Tahiti letter was ever taxed with these stamps (or"vignettes" as I'd prefer) and that such letters and stamps are due to simple complaisance on the part of certain Tahiti postal functionaries.". In the same article, the auctioneer Alexandre Roumet fully agreed that the great majority of letters and canceled stamps of Tahiti are philatelically contrived.

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

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

A 1 c black postage due stamp of the French colonies exists with overprint 'Tahiti' (extremely rare). The 1 c black postage due stamp of the French colonies also exists with overprint "Tahiti 1893 TAHITI" (extremely rare). I don't have any picture of the first stamp. By the way, the French forger Georges Carion is known to have made forgeries of these stamps, including extremely rare varieties.....

Forgery of this rare overprint.

20 c stamp with a Carion dealer mark, could be a forgery?

Letters addressed to Charles Georget were fabricated by Vallier, the postmaster of Tahiti. He pasted all postage due overprints on letters which were then offered to stamp dealers. Usually (as probably was the case above) these letters were cut up and the individual stamps sold be the dealers. See https://www.franceandcolonies.org/philatelist/266.pdf for more details.

Image obtained from the before mentioned journal.

I've been told that this 30 c stamp has a forged "1893 TAHITI" overprint, I have no further information

A genuine basic stamp(?) used in Cochinchine and then fraudulently overprinted "TAHITI" and with a new cancel?

Forgeries (Type 2 forgeries, both the basic stamps and the overprints). In my opinion, the top of the "5" curls too much backwards in the 15 c value. In the 2 forgery the "2" is placed too far to the right and the second "R" of "PERCEVOIR" is also too close to the ornaments besides it. In all values, there is a defect in the upper right corner. These all have a forged cancel "PAPEETE 13 AOUT 9? TAITI".

A forged stamp (made by Fournier, with a broken upper left corner) with a forged overprint. See also: French colonies, postage due stamps, Fournier forgeries, first type

Another part of a sheet with Fournier forged cancels, among them a "PAPEETE 4 AOUT 03 TAITI" cancel

A genuine(?) "PAPEETE 4 AOUT 03 TAITI" cancel, note that the "4" is different.

Some other forged Fournier cancels.

Forgery of the 60 c value. The word "CHIFFRE" is in thicker font, the "S" of "POSTES" are different from a genuine stamp. This appears to be part of the French colonies postage due forgery type 7. Note the "PAPEETE 3E/14 FEVR 83 TAHITI" which also appears on other forgeries of the postage stamps of Tahiti.

Forgery of the 1 F stamp, the basic stamp is also forged. And a 5 F bogus issue made by the same forger.

Forgery: 40 c with "1893 TAHITI" overprint. For more forgeries of this type, click on: French colonies, postage due stamps, primitive forgery type 2

A bogus 1 F black stamp with "1893 TAHITI" overprint. The basic stamp is also forged.

Most likely a forged "Tahiti" overprint.

A forged "TAHITI" overprint? on what I presume to be a genuinely used postage due stamp in Hanoi?

A bogus 'Tahiti" overprint.

Genuine stamp with an already cancelled to order chop from Nossi Be and further forged overprint "1893 TAHITI"

Later, unoverprinted postage due stamps

I've seen many postage due stamps of the French Colonies, with cancel "PAPEETE 4 DEC 94 TAITI" in a double circle. Maybe they are cancelled to order? Also the cancel "PAPEETE * 31-10 25 TAHITI" and "PAPEETE * 5-9 25 TAHITI":

A Fournier forgery of the 2 F, with a "PAPEETE 10 MAI ?4 TA??" cancel which is not given in the Fournier Album.

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer