Working with the ARTAR Catalog – Odds and Errors : Part 6

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Stefan

Page 153 features a very interesting cover.

On the first view, nothing out of order. But closer inspection shows, there is something fishy with this piece. Kudos goes to Trevor for bringing that to my attention. Have a closer look at the cancel. Two things show:

  • The script character of the Alexandropol cancel is missing. There is an asterisk (star) character instead.
  • There are traces of another cancel below. See script character “a”, asterisk, part of another date starting with “2” and more characters.

Now I am interested in explanations. It seems clear the cover is manipulated. The question is, when and why? Has an old stamp been reused?

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Working with the ARTAR Catalog – Odds and Errors : Part 5

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Stefan

The 35 kopek on 20.000 rubles overprint.

This overprint is actually quite rare. 99% of all items on ebay and co are fake. The most common fake also made it in the catalog. The overprints on Artar Stamp Type I is a common forgery.

Faked overprint. Often with signature “AG” on the backside.

This is what a genuine overprint looks like.

The genuine overprint in detail.

The forgery in detail. Shape is wrong, ink blueish.

Beware, much better forgeries of this overprint exist. This overprint is unused quite rare, even used not often to find and when used, the stamps have more then not the “k” correction.

PS: Fake, Genuine, Fake, Fake

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Working with the ARTAR Catalog – Odds and Errors : Part 4

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Stefan

Lets discuss the “Specimen” overprints. Well described and documented are the basic, not italic, overprints in the lower values of 1 to 15 rubles. New is the overprint on the higher values and the additional types – italic, serifed and  diagonally printed. Neither Tchilinghirian nor Zakiyan or Ceresa describe these types. The overprints on the higher values seem to have appeared in the united states. I tend to agree Ceresa (from whom I know how he thinks about this stuff) and others, that think those overprints are highly doubtful (or clearly fake). We have no evidence that supports the genuineness of these overprints. The only point that speaks for the overprints on the higher values is, that it makes sense to provide examples of all nominations for the UPU archives, not only a subset. Think about how easy it is to produce those overprints…

Page 128

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Working with the ARTAR Catalog – Odds and Errors : Part 3

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Stefan

Forged overprints on page 24.

And a super ugly one on page 28.

On page 33 you will find two forged overprints where both overprints are forged: Please meet a k.60.k F2 forgery together with a forged framed Z and for completeness an F1 forgery, also together with a forged framed Z.

Another incredible ugly one on page 35. So obvious.

On page 36 a D.1d type forgery and a forged overprint on a “rare” stamp (the basic stamps were not available at the post office, someone had to bring them in the country and get them overprinted at the counter). The stamp itself is not rare.

Two crude forgeries and again a forged overprint on a “rare” stamp on page 38.

Three crude forgeries. Page 40.

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Working with the ARTAR Catalog – Odds and Errors : Part 2

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Stefan

On page 20 the different types and sizes of the Framed Monograms are listed.

I am asking myself:

  • How come there are two formerly not described small types a and a1 (7mm diameter)?
  • Why is the small type described by Tchilinghirian and Ceresa (E.1a) missing?
  • Why is a well know forgery (Tchilinghirian D.1d here as type c) listed?

This is the smallest framed Z overprint as described by Tchilinghirian and Ceresa. Diameter is 7mm. Its not listed in Artar, but there you can find the formerly unknown types a and a1. Can anyone provide a scan of a cover with one or both of the new Artar types?

Type c as described by Artar and then D.1d as shown in Tchilinghirian.

And the forgery in natura.

You can find a lot of pictures of the forgery D.1d over the catalog. For instance two times here on page 26.

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Working with the ARTAR Catalog – Odds and Errors : Part 1

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Stefan

While working with the Artar catalog I encountered many odd things, that made me stop and thinking and also – sic – a lot of outright errors. While no work of this complexity is without faults the sheer quantity of the dubious and erroneous findings is a big problem. The catalog itself is a work of high quality publishing-wise. Good paper, many high quality pictures, nice structure. So while the outer presence builds an image of a serious work, the contents fails to follow this quality standards: research-wise and in correctness.

I fear, that many collectors and – perhaps even worse – sellers and auction houses will use the catalog to check for genuine overprints and to calculate prices. They are bound to make mistakes that way.

Lets have a look at some of the problems.

Here are my findings on page 16.

First Problem: The 60 kopek hand-surcharged in violet. Lets ignore the problem of cataloging extremely rare hand surcharges.  Can we consider them regular issues? Also, how can I be certain this hand-surcharge is genuine? Are there enough characteristics? Do I have covers with those stamps that document the usage? Anyway. Lets have a look at the text to the left:

Prior to declaring independence on May 28,
1918 and forming the Republic of Armenia,
the stamps of Russian Empire were in circula-
tion in Eastern Armenia. In fact, the circulation
of those stamps continued even after the
independence and until July of 1919.

In July of 1919, according to a resolution of
the Armenian Postal/Telegraphic Department,
special metallic and rubber overprints were
produced to prevent the use of illegally
imported stamps. As such, two different over-
prints were used on Russian Empire stamps
and postal stationary:
-“30 kop” overprint on stamps and postal station-
ary with denomination of “3 kop” for postcards
-“60 kop” overprint on stamps with denomina-
tion of “1 kop” for letters.

This is basically identically to what Tchilinghirian and Ceresa are writing. Btw, none of both mention hand-surcharges for this period. Overprinting czarist stamps with overprints started in November. On the stamp the date of the cancel is readable.

The date reads: 30.3.19. This is much too early. Chances this overprint is genuine are almost zero. Even if the extremely improbable case would be true and they made hand surcharges at this time, this stamps is not enough evidence, to list this “issue” as genuine.

Second Problem: A new, formerly unknown overprint.

This overprint is not described before. Neither Tchilinghirian, nor Zakiyan or Ceresa list this overprint. I asked fellow collectors and they too could not find this in there (vast) collections. On what base did the author decide to list this type? I don’t know. Without background information, examples of covers or descriptions in archive texts, this is not valid for me.

Third problem: Odd Aleksandropol cancel

I am generally very cautious regarding the “news paper items”.  In this case I stumbled over the shape of the script letter “zhe”.

Normally the script letter is tilted – like its written in italic font. Here is an example.

Compare yourself. Is this the same cancel?

Postscript: According to Tchilinghirian the k60k stamps were introduced in October 1919. I read 29.8.1919 as date on the cancel.

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Variations of the 10 Ruble Dashnak Overprint

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Stefan

For those who are interested, there is much more to discover than what the catalogs suggest. This is especially true for the 10 ruble HH overprint. Not only is there a second type – which is described by Tchilinghirian and Ceresas, but not listed in the catalogs – but also several specialties like two stages overprints exist.

The 10 ruble HH overprint Type 1

The foot of the “1” is tilted (goes down at the right side), the base of the “r” is lower that the “0”. The endpoints of the H are sharp.

The 10 ruble Type 1 overprint on “fresh” stamps

Most know the “common” 10 ruble overprint which was used primarily on the 25, 35 and 70 kopek perforated stamps.

10 ruble HH overprint Type 1 on 25 kopek perforated stamp.

10 ruble HH overprint Type 1 on 35 kopek perforated stamp. This strongly inked overprint shows the borders of the used cancel.

10 ruble HH overprint Type 1 on 50 kopek perforated stamp.

The 10 ruble Type 1 overprint on already overprinted stamps

Later, due to the increased need of 10 ruble stamps, different basic stamps (rare!) and stamps with existing HP overprint (framed and unframed Z) were used.

10 ruble HH overprint Type 1 over an unframed lilac Z.

10 ruble HH overprint Type 1 over a framed lilac Z.

10 ruble HH overprint Type 1 over unframed Z.

10 ruble HH overprint Type 1 over framed Z.

10 ruble HH overprint Type 1 over framed Z.

The 10 ruble HH overprint Type 2

Not so well known is the second type of the 10 ruble HH overprint. This scarcer overprint type was discovered and described years after its use. The stamp was supposedly produced to meet the sudden need of much more 10 rubles stamps when inflation, due to war with Turkey (they were aggressively invading) and Bolshevist activities, rised much faster than in the neighboring countries Gerogia and Azerbaidhan. The inland letter rate increased from 5 to 10 rubles.

The left side of the foot of the “1” is missing its end and there is a distinctive gap in the right side of the “0” that is present on all imprints – sometimes not so easy to spot when overinked. The gap developed probably because of a bubble of air during casting time. Its existence helps a lot separating this overprint from Type 1 overprints were the “r” did not print or is very weak due to tilting the cancel or weak inking.

Good news: Forgeries of this type are very rare – to this day, since this type was unknown for years and the early forgers missed it thus.

The 10 ruble Type 2 overprint on “fresh” stamps

Ceresa lists a pure “10” only overprint on 10 ruble stamps. I have so far not seen this stamp or even a picture of one. Which does not necessarily means that it doesn’t exist.

The 10 ruble Type 2 overprint on already overprinted stamps

Like with the Type 1 overprint existing stamps with HP (framed or unframed Z) were additionally overprinted with the new value. One could guess that this was, what they had in mind when producing a “value only” cancel.

The 10 ruble Type 2 combined two stages overprint on fresh stamps

The two stages overprint! This is the real reason for this post. One unlucky clerk got a quite intricate task. A fresh stamp got a monogram from one of the existing cancels, but the value was not allowed to print. He had to tilt the cancel or use extra paper to prevent the numerals from printing. For reasons unknown today they refrained from damaging the existing stamps. After this the 1o rubles Type 2 overprint was applied. This way overprints were created, that show the upper part (monogram) of another ruble type (for instance the smaller type of the 5 ruble cancels) while at the bottom a 10 was displayed.
As you can see, we have quite clear impressions which show how accurately this was executed. Also new ink in good quality was used.

The 10 rubles Type 2 overprint together with the upper part of a 5 rubles Type 3 overprint.

The 10 rubles Type 2 overprint together with the upper part of a 5 rubles Type 1 or 2 overprint.

For further study I suggest reading the books form Tchilinghirian and Ceresa.


Posted in Framed Z, Genuine, Mixed Ruble and Z, Ruble, Unframed Z | 4 Comments

More crude forgeries of the framed “Z” type

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Stefan

I already showed and discussed the contorted type found on the 1 kopek stamps. Now lets have a look at the forged overprint on the 5 and 7 rubles 50 kopek stamps. This too is spots a typical form thats easy to detect. The border line is much to thick and the corners way too rounded. The ink also looks wrong.

The fake overprint.

Posted in Ebay, Delcampe and Co, Forged | 2 Comments

Nice collection of overprint forgeries

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Stefan

All stamps – with the exception of the 500 rubles – are reprints. And so it is no surprise, that the overprints are fake. Some are warped and twisted, like the 15 and 20. They cannot stand in comparison the genuine overprints. See the two “5” overprints. The hollow “4” is one of the most common fake overprints found on the 100 rubles stamp.

Here two stamps – one original printing with genuine overprint and one of the reprints with the hollow “4” fake overprint.

The overprints in detail.

Here a stamp with a genuine 20 overprint.

The overprints in detail.

Posted in Ebay, Delcampe and Co, Forged, Second Essayan | Leave a comment

Selling Forgeries as Proofs

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Stefan

The stamps of this pictorial set come in three types: original printings, reprints (with weaker colors) and forgeries. In this case the forgeries are easy to detect. The imprint is much cruder then on the originals. Also the secret marks are not present. Still this seller from New York just claims this to be Proofs. Pretty brazen.

Posted in Ebay, Delcampe and Co, Forged, Second Essayan | 3 Comments