I have a collection of 1917 Russia Imperial Arms Imperforate stamps, mainly designed to show the earliest dates and place of use - these were stamps without a First Day of Issue. I have Blogged about this before on this site.
In yesterday's Kaj Hellman auction and in a previous Cherrystone auction, mint blocks of ten with OBRAZETS overprints have been offered and sold (at good prices). In every case, I looked at the blocks and a ??? came into my mind because all the overprints were slightly mis-aligned (not perfectly level). Normally, great care was taken with OBRAZETS overprints - they are always perfectly level, parallel to the base line of the stamp.
A ??? also came into my mind because the imperforates were not really a stamp issue, but simply the result of a decision taken in 1917 to release unfinished stamps to post offices because of practical difficulties in completing the perforation process.
So I wonder if OBRAZETS overprints were really made on these stamps. Do readers have any opinions or evidence? Overprints should be typographed, though the careful application of the overprint may mean that the normal indentation on the reverse is not easy to see. But it will be there.
Showing posts with label forged OBRAZETS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forged OBRAZETS. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 October 2015
Thursday, 29 May 2014
Russia OBRAZETS overprints: Genuine or Forged?
Russian OBRAZETS [Specimen] overprints are usually attractive, whether Imperial or Soviet. They are characteristically bold and often printed in a striking vermilion ink. They are not rare and on some issues - for example, Imperial War Charities - they are really quite common. But I always have the feeling that in Auctions, they are far too common and I suspect some of being fakes. Today, I saw something which made me think that I was looking at fakes.
Browsing an auction catalogue I saw a strip of stamps with OBRAZETS in blue. The stamps were rouble value Denikins. I show the strip below. Now, in twenty years I have never seen Specimen overprints on Denikins and I didn't know they existed. So I was a bit suspicious of this strip. Then, in the same catalogue, I noticed some Soviet strips with OBRAZETS overprints, though the colours seemed a bit odd. See below.
Then I noticed something that these strips have in common and which I have never noticed when looking at genuine OBRAZETS strips.
None of these strips has the overprint perfectly horizontal. They are all at a small angle, up or down. This makes me suspicious. First, that they all have this feature. Second, that normally such overprints are applied with great care. And, third, I can easily imagine someone feeding strips into a printer and finding it difficult to keep them exactly straight to take the digital overprint.
As a result of thinking like this, I won't be bidding for any of these strips.
Browsing an auction catalogue I saw a strip of stamps with OBRAZETS in blue. The stamps were rouble value Denikins. I show the strip below. Now, in twenty years I have never seen Specimen overprints on Denikins and I didn't know they existed. So I was a bit suspicious of this strip. Then, in the same catalogue, I noticed some Soviet strips with OBRAZETS overprints, though the colours seemed a bit odd. See below.
Then I noticed something that these strips have in common and which I have never noticed when looking at genuine OBRAZETS strips.
None of these strips has the overprint perfectly horizontal. They are all at a small angle, up or down. This makes me suspicious. First, that they all have this feature. Second, that normally such overprints are applied with great care. And, third, I can easily imagine someone feeding strips into a printer and finding it difficult to keep them exactly straight to take the digital overprint.
As a result of thinking like this, I won't be bidding for any of these strips.
Click on Image to Magnify
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