The So-Called "Mustard" Forgeries

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  • edited October 2017
    Here is a scan of a block of 10 of #64. It has the CTO2 cancel and a vertical line that was made during printing. Has anyone else seen one like this ?
    img755
  • Does anyone have any more items to add on the "Mustard" colors ?
  • edited November 2017
    The dot varieties of the mustard shade are also worth mentioning. They can occur at various positions on the sheets and are semi-constant, i.e. some of them can be found on more than one sheet at the same position, but not on all sheets. I assume these dots were caused by "perforation confetti" that got stuck to the plate for a few printing runs and then fell off again. The dots are most striking when they appear in the "3".
    My own sheet holds two such varieties, at positions 864_mustard_CTO_pos08
    and 49
    64_mustard_CTO_pos49
    I remember once seeing another sheet with the same flaws, but it had additional flaws elsewhere. My sheet also has a misaligned perforation between the third and the fourth row.

    64_mustard_CTO_sheet
    Here is a link showing the sheet at 300 dpi: http://philib.org/free_downloads/64_mustard_CTO_sheet.jpg

  • Thanks Manfred for showing these. I will look over my stamps and see if I have any others like yours. I guess it's down to you and me to add items to the forum ?

  • Here are more photos to add. The 1st one is a inverted overprint, 13 dots at the bottom The 2nd one are 2 blocks of 4 with shifted red colors, two distinct colors. On the block of 4 on the right you will find that the bottom left stamp has one of those 'dots' on the '3'.
    img785
    img787
  • edited December 2017
    Anybody have any more to add ? Lets keep it going ?
  • I guess no more to add ? Does it stop here ?
  • Hi Albert,

    I thought I would throw an image out to keep things going....


  • Here is my interesting mustard item... imperforate vertical.

  • Regarding the 8c overprint, here is a 5c Essay.
  • As Manfred mentioned earlier, the biggest puzzle is why 8c stamps were needed. I suspected that it is for some sort of parcel rate in multiples of 8c. But, here is a Money Order Bureau cancel, 30 March 1914, likely used within the first year of issuance (or close to a year). So maybe 8c was the money order rate in 1913-14.

  • Finally, regarding Die 2 (10 Pearls), here is a partial sheet that was likely used for alignment trials... Everything is shifted, and the reverse has red frames only. Not necessarily "waste", but I consider it a "practice sheet".
  • Regarding the 8c rate, I just found a note in the Dec. 1913 issue of The London Philatelist, vol. 22, no. 264, p. 298:
    LIBERIA. — Mr. H. L. Hayman sends us the 3 c. stamp of 1897, Gibbons' Type 33, with the value obliterated with a solid five-pointed star, and with figure "8" each side. "INLAND" is also ruled out, but "POSTAGE" remains. It is required, we are told, for 1 oz. postage.
    The normal rate in 1913 was 5c per half ounce. So, apparently shortly before WW2 Liberia introduced a reduced rate for heavier mail (for a few years anyway).
  • Anymore to add ?
  • I too found some information in an article "The Perkins, Bacon Engraving Books" from the The London Philatelist from Oct. 1963 p. 170:
    4. Three Cents Inland Postage overprinted 8 (1913)
    There is no information at all regarding this stamp except an entry in the Engraving Book dated 8/12/13: 'Engraving Star and 8 cents for Liberia postage stamps', and a further entry on 7/7/14: 'Engraving patch for Liberia stamp (Litho) 8 cents'.
  • Interesting. I'll need to look for 8c covers.
    I then assume a 2oz cover is 16c.
    Or would it be 14c (5+3+3+3)
  • But offhand, I think that I've seen 10c covers from 1914-1920, which would be 1oz postage.

    But then again, even though rates went from 8c to 5c in 1892, you still find covers franked 8c and 16c through 1895 or 1896!
  • Here is a cover to Henry Hayman dated 16 Jan 1914. Very early.

    It has a 48c franking. I dismissed it as philatelic. BUT, given 15c for the single registered rate, the remaining 33c is 11 times the additional 3c rate. Thus the cover is 12 times the 1/2 oz rate, plus 10c registration.

    Unlikely, unless it contained coin.

  • Nice cover. Thanks for showing us.
  • Based on Travis' note about the PB engraving book entry of 8 Dec 1913, the above cover cold be a FDC, which is likely why it is over-franked.

    Following is another cover to Hayman dated 2 weeks later (28 Jan 1914), and used 16c to pay the 15c registered rate, overpaid 1c.


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