Catalogue Papal States

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1867-1868 Arms, Value in "Cent" or "CENTESIMI", perforated or imperforate

Note that the "T" of "CENTESIMI" always seems to be lower than the "N" of the same word in the "TRE CENTESIMI". These stamps became invalid in 1870.

Cancels:

Grill cancel together with a 'ACUTO' straight townname cancel and 'ANAGNI' circular date cancel on piece of envelope, reduced size

Lozenge of dots cancel (most usual cancel on this issue), elsewhere on the envelope a circular date cancel was placed, reduced size

The most usual cancel is the 'Lozenge of Dots' cancel which was introduced in 1868. All previous cancelling devices were to be replaced by this one as instructed by the postal authorities.

Remainders:

Some remainders exist of the 5 c, 10 c, 20 c and 80 c. More information can be found on: http://www.vaticanphilately.org/rs.htm.The 5, 10 and 20 c were not gummed and are imperforate with slightly different colours.

Reprints:

ATTENTION: most of the centesimi stamps of the Papal States have been reprinted in large quantities. They are very hard to distinguish from original stamps. PClick here for more information of the very common 1867 issue reprints. These reprints are almost worthless and can still be found in large quantities today. Many of the stamps shown above are probably reprints.

Forgeries:

This 2 c forgery also appears in the de Torres catalogue of 1879 on page 86. It is identical to a forgery listed in the book Roman States Forgeries, the issue of 1867-1868' by F.J.Levitsky and F.A.Jenkins. Sorry, no image available yet of the 'real' forgery.

Spiro forgery of the 3 c, the "F" and "R" of "FRANCO" are different, the "B" of "BOLLO" too large, etc.

According to Roman States Forgeries, the issue of 1867-1868 by F.J.Levitsky and F.A.Jenkins; this forgery was made by Senf. The letters are all too large. It looks identical to an illustration from a 1898 German stamp album from Schaubek. It appears next to a 5 c and a 10 c illustration there. This is probably the reason Levitsky mentions that Jenkins has seen this forgery se-tenant with the 5 c and 10 c.

A Spiro forgery of the 5 c value. The "F" of "FRANCO" is a "P" (here badly visible). The "C" of "Cent" has a large lower serif. The cancel is a typical Spiro cancel.

This is a Zechmeyer forgery of the 5 c value according to Roman States Forgeries, the issue of 1867-1868 by F.J.Levitsky and F.A.Jenkins.

Spiro forgery of the 10 c value, the '0' of '10' is more rounded than in the genuine stamps and there is an "I" instead of a "E" in "POSTALI"

Forgery of the 20 c, reduced size. In this forgery the '20' and 'Cent' are too close together

Forgery of the 20 c with a curved foot of the "2". The keyhandles are also different. The "C" of "Cent" is too big etc.

These forgeries of the 5 c, 10 c and 20 c were clearly based on this 1898 German stamp album from Schaubek (issued by Senf).

Forgery made by Senf in 1875 according to Roman States Forgeries, the issue of 1867-1868 by F.J.Levitsky and F.A.Jenkins. It has a strange "40. Cent". I have indeed seen this image in a Schaubek album (issued by Senf). This forgery can also be found in the catalogue of Placido Ramon de Torres "Album Illustrado para Sellos de Correo" of 1879 (information passed to me thanks to Gerhard Lang, 2016) on page 86 (see second image).

Forgery, very similar to the above Senf one, but for example a narrower "0" in "40" and the "C" of "Cent" taller.

A Senf forgery of the 80 c. The "8" looks like an "S" and the "0" is narrow. There are only 5 inner black spaces in the key handles (genuine stamps have 7).

More dangerous than the forgeries are the reprints (the forger Fournier probably also offered these reprints).

Fournier forgeries

Fournier offers forgeries of these stamps in his 1914 pricelist (perforated 13), I presume he offered one of these reprints. When Fournier's forgeries were acquired by the Philatelic Union of Geneva, they received the overprint 'FAUX' and were mounted in a 'Fournier Album' that was sold to stamp dealers, so they could recognize the forgeries he had made.

Page of a 'Fournier Album of Philatelic Forgeries' with forgeries with 'FAUX' overprint, also some forged cancels

Page from a 'Fournier Album of Philatelic Forgeries' showing a block of ten 50 B forgeries and a block of four forgeries of the 1 Sc value together with some other forgeries of the Papal States.

This 80 c stamp appears to have a "TERRACINA 4 APR 67" as also appears in the Fournier Album (but under Parma).

Page from 'A Fournier Album' with an example of the forged cancel "TERRACINA 4 APR 67"

A postal forgery of the 8 Baj value with thicker "B" and "A". Also the bottom of the tiara has the curved lines in the wrong direction.

Literature

A description of how to detect the forgeries and reprints can be found in the books:

1) 'Roman States forgeries - the issue of 1852' by Frederik J. Levitsky;
2) 'Roman States forgeries - the issue of 1867-68' by Frederik J. Levitsky and Rev. Floyd A. Jenkins;
3) 'Roman States essays and reprints - the issue of 1867-70' by Rev. Floyd A. Jenkins.

These books are published by Triad Publications 30 Drabbington way, Weston, Ma 02193 USA (with thanks to Lorenzo who passed this information to me). These books are quite helpful to distinguish forgeries (though some pictures of the forgeries are unclear). I haven't read the third book.

VATICAN CITY

1929 Arms or Pope Pius XI

Arms (with underprint with inscription 'POSTE VATICANE')

  5 c black on lilac
  10 c green on green
  20 c violet on lilac
  25 c blue on blue
  30 c blue on yellow
  50 c black on lilac
  75 c red on grey

Surcharged (1931)
  25 c on 30 c blue on yellow

Pope Pius XI
  80 c red
  1.25 L blue
  2 L brown
  2.50 L red
  5 L green
  10 L olive

Express stamps with Pope Pius XI (larger size)
  2 L red
  2.50 L blue

All the above stamps (except the surcharged stamp of 1931) exist with overprint 'PER PACCHI' (parcel stamps) and were issued in 1931.

The values 5 c, 10 c and 20 c exist with overprint 'SEGNATASSE' (postage due stamps, 1931). Some values were surcharged and overprinted with 'SEGNATASSE': 40 c on 30 c, 60 c on 2 L brown, 1.10 L on 2.50 L red.

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
Imperforate
2 c	***	R
3 c	RR	RRR
5 c	***	R
10 c	*	**
20 c	*	**
40 c	R	RR
80 c	R	RR
Perforated 13 (13 1/4); usually rough
2 c	**	***
3 c	R	RRR
5 c	***	***
10 c	*	*
20 c	*	***
40 c	***	R
80 c	***	RR
Reprints
All values	vc	-

PAPAL STATES (Stato Pontificio), 1867 issue, VATICAN CITY and miscellaneous