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Return To Catalogue - Rumania 1858 first issue, forgeries, part 2 - Rumania 1858 first issue - Cancels on the first issues
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.
The most famous stamps of Romania are the famous “Bull’s Head” or "Cap de Bour" stamps of 1858. Actually, those stamps were issued by the Principality of Moldova (Moldavia). In 1859 Moldova was united with the Principality of Wallachia to form Romania. At that time Transylvania was still under Austro-Hungarian occupation. In 1916, Romania declared war against Germany and Austro-Hungary. After the war, Transylvania and Bucovina became part of Romania.
From the approximately 24,000 stamps issued, only 724 survived, with only 89 on cover. They are considered as one of the world’s rarities. Another source (http://www.rpsl.org.uk/moldavia/index.html) says that 778 stamps survived. The stamps were issued on 21 July 1858, but the first known date is 29 July 1858. The last known date of use is 31 October 1858. The stamps were hand-printed in sheets of 32 stamps (4 rows of 8 stamps).
The Bull’s Head issue was reprinted twice, and can easily be recognized, because they are printed on different papers than the originals.
Since these stamps are very rare, many forgeries exist, examples:
This might be the forgery mentioned in Le Timbre Poste of 1874 by
Moens (No.138 page 48); It is described how someone from
Bucharest found back the printing stone and offered reprints.
However, the 'reprints' are different in design and are thus
ordinary forgeries. Notably, the second 'O' of 'PORTO' is too
round, the star is too small, the '2' too large and the '7'
slanting too much. The right horn of the bull points to the 4th
character of the word above it (instead of to the 3rd character);
it should point to the 'P', not to the inverted 'N'-character.
Other forgeries:
Forgeries of the 108 pa value with the "8" very narrow
and one eye missing.
Forgeries of the 54 pa with squeezed star.
'Angry bull' forgery
Engraved forgeries?
Forgery of the 54 pa with very staring round eyes. There is a
dent in the circle next to the first "O" of
"PORTO"
Two forgeries of the 108 pa with bogus dots cancels.
Two forgeries with a bogus
"FRANCO" cancel.
Very deceptive forgeries of the 54 pa value, both with 'ROMAN 11
12 MOLDOVA' cancel. In my opinion, the '54' is slightly different
(top part of '5' too short, right hand side of '4' slanting
forwards).
Two forgeries of the 54 pa, one in green and the other in blue.
Apparently based on the same design. The '4' of the '54' is
closed. This forgery is identical to the image provided in the
John Edward Gray 'The Illustrated Catalogue of Postage Stamps' of
1870 (except that it is in black color there, see above image).
Forgeries made by the same forger. A line connects the posthorn
to the cyrillic letter "P".
A forgery very similar to the above ones, but with more blurred
design and the "108" larger.
Forgeries of the 108 pa value, with a very large right eye. The
forgeries appear to be slightly different, but clearly inspired
by each other. The third forgery is the most convincing. The
first forgery was clearly based on an illustration of a Schaubek
album (or even a cut-out perhaps?).
even in the wrong colours and values:
Forgeries in different colors and non-existing values, made by
the same forger.
Forgeries with very short horns on the bull. These two forgeries
were made by the same forger. I've seen the 54 pa with the
erroneous cancel "GALATZ 15 9 MOLDOUA" (Moldovia is
misspelt). I've been told that these are Hamburg forgeries. They
also exist for the next issues (with the same forged city
cancels).
For more forgeries: Rumania 1858 first issue, forgeries, part 2.
http://come.to/romaniastamps/ or http://www.romaniastamps.com/; an enormous amount of interesting data for the Romanian stamp collector.
http://hem.passagen.se/utions/bull/truebull.htm
http://membres.lycos.fr/dgrecu/DM1.html; Romania, A short postal history of Romania, by Dinu Matei, Calgary, Canada, First published in 'Calgary Philatelist', issue #29, April 1998, pp.3-7.
http://membres.lycos.fr/dgrecu/
Literature:
