Forgeries

Since their date of issue, the stamps of the Orange Free State have provided ample scope for forgers, who were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity. The forgeries can be divided into two groups - firstly, forgeries of the stamps themselves, and secondly, forgeries of the various overprints. Robson Lowe¹ comments that "the dangerous fakes are the genuine stamps with forged surcharges added", and I totally agree with this statement. Generally speaking, forgeries of the actual stamps themselves are not that difficult to detect as there are numerous subtle differences from the originals. However, some of the forged overprints are very difficult to identify with any degree of certainty. As the forgers tended to copy the rarer overprints, we collectors need to be cautious.

Forgeries of the Commando Brief are dealt with here.

Forgeries of the Definitive Stamps

In volume 1 of their publication², Buckley and Marriott list three series of forged definitive stamp. To aid identification of the various forgeries, the table of chracteristics is included here and extended to include additional information. Those characteristics that I have found to be useful in distinguishing forgeries and separating the types of forgery are highlighted.

Note that this table is not complete since there are some examples below of forgeries that do not fit any of the listed categories.

Characteristics of the OFS Forgeries (after Buckley and Marriott, but extended)

Item	Genuine Stamps	First forgery (Spiro Bros)	Second forgery	Third forgery
Paper	Thin white wove.	Whiter and thicker.	Thicker and stiffer; not so white.Also woven.	Good match with genuine.
Printing process	Typography.	Lithography.	Lithography.	Uncertain.
Values copied	(n/a)	1d brown 4d ultramarine (now greyish) 6d carmine 1/- orange	6d carmine 1/- yellow 1/- brown 5/- green	5/- green
Perforation	14	12 x 12½; Imperf, x 12 or 12½; Rough 13	14	14
Design Lettering	Tails of 'n' and 'j' of 'Oranje' do not touch. Large stops. Stop over 'j' clear of frame line.	Smaller than genuine. Tails of 'n and 'j' usually touch. Small stops. Stop over 'j' touches frame line.	Larger than genuine. Some letters differ markedly from the genuine. Base of 'j' of 'Oranje' almost level with bases of other letters.	Larger dot over 'j' of 'Oranje'. More pronounced serifs to 'V'.
Background	79 horizontal lines of shading.	74 horizontal lines of shading.	80 horizontal lines of shading.	81 horizontal lines of shading.
Tree	Top of tree touches top line of shading. 29 distinct oranges on tree. Knot on trunk extends over three lines of shading.	Top of tree touches top frameline. 18 distinct oranges and many white patches on tree. Knot on trunk larger, extending over four lines of shading.	Top of tree touches second line of shading. 21 distinct oranges on tree. Knot on trunk lengthened to a spur.	Top of tree touches top line of shading. 12 distinct oranges on the tree. Foliage not dense enough.
Posthorns	Loops of cords large enough to be cut by a line of shading. Loop of bottom posthorn central under trunk of tree.	Loops small and often not cut by a line of shading. Loop of bottom posthorn to right of centre.	Loops as genuine. Loop of bottom posthorn slightly to right of centre.	Loops as genuine. Dot in centre of each loop.
Other characteristics		Usually with distinctive cancellations. Colour is variable - shade is not a good indicator. The printing is more crude than the genuine stamps.	Only seen gummed and uncancelled.	Copies are a distinctive yellow green colour. Seen gummed and uncancelled as well as cancelled with a forged barred oval postmark.

The Spiro forgeries

The earliest forgeries of the 1868 'orange tree' definitive issues were created before 1875 by the Spiro brothers, who were based in Hamburg. All three 1868 values were copied - the 1d brown, 6d carmine and 1/- orange. In addition, the Spiro's produced a copy of the 4d ultramarine; this was apparently printed with ink that was not light-fast and many these stamps have faded to a pale grey or greyish-purple colour.

Examples are uncommon and are usually ungummed and are often 'cancelled' with a forged cancellation. These cancellations are quite distinctive and are often the first warnging of a suspect stamp. A complete sheet of Spiro forgeries with cancellations is shown as Figure 2.15 in volume 1 of Buckley and Marriott.

The Spiro forgeries have three characteristics that make them relatively easy to detect:

• the top of the orange tree touches the inner frame line (on the genuine stamps it ends at the first horizontal decoration line)
• the loops of the posthorns lie between two decoration lines (on the genuine stamps, the loops are cut in half by a horizontal decoration line)
• the tails of 'n' and 'j' in 'Oranje' usually touch

In addition, the Spiro forgeries often have the wrong perforations - either perf. 12, perf. 12x12½, imperf, or a kind of line roulette (genuine stamps are perf 14).

A selection of Spiro forgeries

1d	1d	4d	6d	6d	1/-

Second Series Forgeries

< no examples are available >

Third Series Forgeries

The only stamp in Buckley and Marriotts third series of forgeries is a copy of the 5/- green. An example is illustrated below.

Other Forgeries

• A different 6d

  The stamp illustrated below is a forgery of the 6d carmine that does not fit any of the characteristics in the table above. It has 81 lines of shading and 17 distinct 'oranges' on the tree. The knot is extended to a small limb. The colour is an odd shade of red with a distinctly salmon-pink tone.

  Additionally, there are numerous inking flaws (e.g. above the 'a' of 'Oranje' and above the stop after 'Staat') but with only one example it is impossible to say if these flaws are diagnostic.

  

• A modern "forgery"

In the mid-1980's the South African Post Office produced a commemorative card which featured a reproduction of the 1868 1/- orange definitive. The 'stamp' illustrated below turned up in a collection that I purchased, and has been cut out from one of these cards. The card was printed by an offset-litho process and under magnification the entire image is made up of dots (like a magnified newspaper picture). The effect is most noticiable on what should be the horizontal decoration lines. It is easy enough to detect and therefore is unlikely to deceive. The postmark is also a give-away, being of the SAPO type and bearing no resemblance whatsoever to any genuine OFS cancellation.

Forged Overprints

Forgeries of the 1877 4d on 6d provisional

The stamps shown here are all genuine, with bogus overprints.

• These are forged type D overprints, which have quite clearly been applied on top of an existing cancellation.

  

• I think that this is a forgery close to a type D overprint, but the cancellation appears to be on top of the overprint, which could mean that it is genuine. However, the ink has a definite grey-violet shade, and the type face is not quite right.

• These two forgeries are quite obvious as there should be no bar cancelling the original value. The stamp on the left has a fiscal cancellation.

  

Forgeries of the 1882 3d on 4d provisional.

This is a forgery that appears to be intended to mimic type E. However, it is in a much smaller type than the genuine overprint.

Forgeries of the 1888 2d on 3d Provisional

This is a forgery of the 2d on 3d provisional. The base of the '2' has no point or serif and does not match any known type of overprint.

Forgeries of the 1892 2½d on 3d Provisional

This is a forgery of the 1892 provisional. However, the overprint bears no resemblance to the genuine article.

Forgeries of the 1896 ½d on 3d Provisional

The stamp shown here is a forgery approximating to the type C overprint. The following differences from the genuine stamp can be noted, however:

• the top of the '2' touches the horizontal dividing line
• the upper serif of the 'd' has a sloping base
• the upper serif of the '1' has a convex rather than a straight top

Miscellaneous Forged Overprints

• It is unclear what the stamp illustrated here was intended to copy, as it bears a '4' overprint (presumably meant to be 4d) on a 3d ultramarine stamp. This does not match any known provisional issue.

  

Forged Overprints on Telegraph Stamps

I have not yet quite made up my mind about the stamp shown here. I *think* that this is a genuine telegraph stamp (with a genuine 'TF' overprint) with a forged "V.R.I. / 1d" overprint added, but I cannot see why anybody would want to do this.

The fount used for the forged (?) overprint is slightly different to that used for the genuine VRI overprints. In particular, the following points stand out:

• The serifs of the 'V' are exaggerated
• The curly leg of the 'R' is too short, and the curl is exaggerated
• The upper right serif of the 'I' is too long
• The '1' does not match that used for genuine 1d overprints
• The 'd' does not match that used for genuine 1d overprints and is dropped; Buckley and Marriott³ do not record a 'dropped d' variety for the 1d overprint.
• Genuine telegraph stamps were only overprinted 'V.R.I.' - no value was used.

It is conceivable that this is a genuine (overprinted) postage stamp that was subsequently overprinted as a telegraph stamp, and all these traits could result from worn type (etc.) during the printing process, but they do not match any of the known fount/forme states and it is stretching coincidence a bit for them all to occur together.

References

1. Robson Lowe, Encyclopedia of British Empire Postage Stamps, Volume 2, Part 1, "The Empire in Africa", p. 79
2. Buckley and Marriott, Stamps of the Orange Free State, Volume 1.
3. Buckley and Marriott, Stamps of the Orange Free State, Volume 2, Chapter 6.