The 15 Gold Kopeck Overprint as quite common, just like the 20 Gold Kopeck from the post before. Still the forgeries are much more difficult to spot. Part of the problem is the dark and well inked background, which hides a lot of detail of the overprint and prevents a good contrast. Another problem is the wide range of variations due to more or less fluid ink, gathered dust on the cancel and the “human factor” – how strong the clerk pressed the cancel device down.
Lets have a look at this overprint. Here is a genuine stamp with a perfect impression of the genuine overprint.
The Overprint in Detail. The shape is perfect and the ink in the most typical fashion.
And another picture of a light variation – the 15 Gold Kopeck overprint with the small upper serif one the digit one. In this case the ink is much thicker and with more pigment.
Now let’s have a look at the most dangerous forgery.
And in detail: Please note the different ink, slightly bluish and kind of weak. The main difference in the shape is the flag of the five. The ball of the five almost (or even does) touch the serif of the one.
Besides from obvious fakes which immediately appear as such when compared to a genuine overprint I found this stamp in my collection.
The overprint in detail. The ink differs from the weak one of type 1, the shape is almost the same. Another variation is the foot of the one. On genuine overprints the left side is larger than the right side, on fakes it is the other way around.
For comparison reasons a set of genuine overprints and below fakes.
Genuine!
Fake!
My handbook on the forgeries of this issue, Forgery Guide No.16, is in broad agreement with your findings. This is good detailed work on this issue. Keep it up. Ray