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Georg Zechmeyer

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Georg Zechmeyer was a stamp dealer, toy dealer and stamp forger of Nurnberg (Germany). He was born in Ansbach in 1836. See for more information on Zechmeyer the book 'Philatelic Forgers, their Lives and Works' by V.E.Tyler. He died on 30 June 1899. According to the next letter, the Zechmeyer shop was the oldest stamp shop in Germany, founded in 1864:


Letter from the Zechmeyer company to Rudolf Friedl, a stamp dealer in Vienna.


Advertisement label of Zechmeyer, showing a 12 k stamp with inscription (in German): 'Originals from the Bavarian postal administation, obtained on 27 February 1877, for sale, stamp dealer G.Zechmeyer, Nurnberg'.

On 27 February 1877 (according to one of his own advertisement labels, see Volume 1 of this catalogue under Bavaria), he acquired all remainders of the stamps of the Kreuzer stamps of Bavaria (including postal stationery) for 4005 Gulden. According to V.E.Tyler this included three and a half million stamps. He resells half of these stamps for 4000 Gulden to the stamp dealer Julius Goldner. See also "The Stamps of the German States" by Bertram W.H.Poole (also downloadable from http://www.archive.org).
The book of Poole mentions that following remainders were bought be Zechmeyer:
1 k: 942,000 stamps (watermark wavy lines)
3 k: 1,470,000 stamps (watermark wavy lines)
6 k: 171,600 stamps,
7 k: 321,000 stamps (watermark wavy lines)
9 k: 174,000 stamps
10 k: 120,000 stamps (watermark wavy lines)
12 k: 3,000 stamps
18 k: 99,000 stamps (watermark wavy lines).

He also sold brochures with imitations of 40 classical worldwide stamps (source: Bund Deutscher Philatelisten e.V.). His sons, Jakob and Georg, continued the business after his death.


Zechmeyer forgery of a 2 p swan stamp of Western Australia. The cancel might have been printed together with the stamp, since I've seen another Zechmeyer forgery with exactly the same cancel in exactly the same location.


1 p Nevis stamp in the wrong colour; black on lilac (same color as the above shown Western Australia forgery). The cancel (consisting of four lines) is always placed in the same position.


Mecklenburg-Schwerin, black on colored paper, the cancel "ROSTOCK" is in the same position, the value is 3 sch and 5 sch..

Forgeries?
Some forgeries of Nevis, sometimes attributed to Zechmeyer. Note that the 1Shilling has inscription '1 Schilling'!

Zechmeyer also made forgeries of the first issue of Brazil and the 1 Sc Papal States stamp.

Zechmeyer also published the book 'Handbuch fur Postmarkensammler' by Ferdinand Meyer (1881). This book can be found on http://www.archive.org. It had descriptions of all postage stamps (no images), including locals.

He also made inverted images with stamps (transfer pictures or 'Abziehbilder' or 'decalcomanies' to be used as toys; to be transferred on a child's arm); see http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=20462 for more information.


Example for Baden 1 Kr blue stamp and a 3 Kr blue Wurttenberg stamp, both in reverse


Another possibly Zechmeyer product from Hong Kong.


1 penny from Great Britain.

According to Gerhard Lang (private converstation); Zechmeyer actually made very few forgeries himself. He mainly sold forgeries made by Behrmann (German States mainly) and some Italian forgers (Italian States, Spain and some South America).


Copyright by Evert Klaseboer