If you want to take part in the discussions, sign in or apply for membership!
In his book A Century of Liberian Philately, Colonel Henry H. Rogers says of Liberia Scott #64, "This stamp has two forgeries, one in a light mustard green (what the heck is 'mustard green?') and the other in a mustard yellow." In giving the identifying characteristics he uses "light green" for type I and "mustard yellow" for type II, so probably the "mustard green" was a typo. Actually there is only one type but two colors (with shades of the green). Lothar von Saleski in his book Liberia: Specialized Stamp Catalogue copies Rogers' description verbatim (one of a number of apparent plagiarisms in von Saleski's book), including that the forgeries have a (white) dot in the "E" of CENTS, a diagonal line in "S" of CENTS, and most forgeries with the fret below "R" of REPUBLIC not turning down as on the original. Also, as with the originals surcharged to 8 cents (Scott #128) von Saleski lists the forgeries revalued to 8 cents also. He also prices the revalued "mustard" regular and imperforate both unused and used. Interestingly, the illustration he gives of Scott #64 is that of the forgery. I possess three of them, ranging in background color from olive green to olive bister (Stanley Gibbons is correct to label the background of the originals as being "sage green").
Philip Cockrill, however, takes issues with them being forgeries. In his booklet The Provisional Surcharged Issues: 1892-1918 he indicates that if the forgery exists revalued 8 cents "then it cannot possibly be a forgery as recorded," although he admits that he never saw one. He also said that there was no conceivable reason why anybody should forge such unattractive stamps and get them cancelled to order, with the cancellation undoubtedly real (implying he's seen them cancelled). An article by Fred Farr in the July-September 1990 edition of the Liberian Philatelic Journal gives another explanation for forging them.
Cockrill also indicates that he was offered many thousands of them from an elderly dealer and that they were part of the stock the controversial Hungarian-born dealer Bela Sekula (nee Szekula: see the "Paper Seal" category of this website) had purchased from the Liberian Post Office Department and that they had lain in a vault until after World War II. It wasn't until the 1950's that they appeared on the market and after that when the offer was made (Cockrill uses the term "mustard and green," but says nothing about the colors on the offered stamps).
1. Does anybody possess (or has anybody seen) any of these "forgeries" revalued to 8 cents? If so, what is the background color?
2. Does anybody possess (or has anybody seen) any of these "forgeries (with or without the revalue) cancelled? If one exists on cover, then it would be a real prize.
Comments
http://www.ebay.com/itm/371691363349
see pictures 41-60
Except for one stamp all of my mustard copies have the same shade - I call it "light mustard". The one exception is of a deeper shade, "dark mustard", and incidentally it is my only canceled stamp beside the sheet (also CTO, of course).
I have never seen this variety revalued to 8 cents, though. The problem with von Saleski is that he listed a lot of material he only knew from hearsay but had never seen himself.
that's very interesting, a mustard block of six with CP26 Harper postmarks from 1969. If I had to guess I would say someone took the stamps to Liberia and had them favor canceled. No matter what the status of the mustard shade is - rejected printing or philatelic reprint - I doubt they were ever delivered to Liberia. If the story the elderly dealer told Philip Cockrill is true Sekula must have purchased them from the printer. The early CTO postmarks were generally applied in England, and there was no need to send these stamps to Liberia (except for some samples, perhaps). Also, all mustard stamps I've seen so far, mint or CTO, looked too pristine to have spent any considerable time in a tropical climate.
Still, I wouldn't mind having this block of six in my own collection :-)
is this a British PO specimen? Cockrill said his specimen (presumably an UPU specimen) had a violet overprint. Also, the overprint on your stamp looks like the ones on the scans of the 1921 pictorials Marty sent me.
I have no doubt that it's genuine. I just wanted to clarify that it isn't a specimen meant to be sent to the UPU (like Albert's #64 with perforated "SPECIMEN"). Although I don't have one, UPU specimens of #128 should exist in small quantities, but, like Cockrill said, your BPO specimen is pretty much unique (except perhaps for another copy in the British Postal Museum).
Sorry if I was defensive. I value your opinion and you had me worried that you may be thinking it was a forgery. I will try to get some more images up later.
I didn't even realize your reply could be seen as defensive. Must be one of these cultural differences between Americans and Germans I've heard so much about ;-)
The Varaschini collection held a #128 with a violet specimen overprint (page 346). Although Varaschini's note says: quoted by Cockrill, this could refer to the perforation (12.5 X 14) and not the overprint. However, this specimen overprint has a sans-serif font, and according to Cockrill all Liberian stamps he ever saw bore the seriffed type. A UPU specimen?
tzone12,
I know what you mean. The stamp is special, only that I always thought it somehow looks out of place. Or, out of time actually, at first I couldn't believe that this stamp was produced in 1897. It just doesn't fit the time period.
Does anyone know a stamp with a similar design from another country?
the postmark used on the provisionals of 1914 and on your #128 if quite common. I have a #64 canceled with it and several others. I have no doubt that all of them were done in Liberia, but the "killing" of the 1914 issue was probably a joint effort of the Monrovia post office and J.W. West.
here is a used #128 perf. 12.5 from my collection, also CP21, canceled August 6, 1917.
And this is the #64 with CP18 I was talking about.
Finally, another example of CP18 used as a favor cancel, on a block of six of O59 (the block has full gum).
I wrote an article on this subject for the LPS Journal, but even after more than two years it still hasn't been published, so I might just as well make it available for download here:
Scott #64 with “INLAND” obliterated
Why the overprint? Clearly the 8 cents rate was needed for something, but for what? Truth is, we don't know. Since the overprint was also used to obliterate the word "INLAND", the stamp was probably intended for international mail. However, most international covers from the time the stamp was issued (1913) are franked with 5 cents or multiples thereof. It's a bit of a mystery...