CLASSIC LATIN AMERICA | News, commentary and opinion on Central and South American philately

The Numerals Issues of Brazil – Fakes, Forgeries and Counterfeits

Only one of these Bull’s Eyes is genuine…the example on the right

Most collectors of Latin America will be familiar with the early postage stamps of Brazil. Bull’s Eyes, Snake’s Eyes, Goat’s Eyes, Cat’s Eyes…collectively, the numeral issues of the Brazilian Empire.

Stephen Rose has spent nearly fifty years studying these issues and currently serves as the American Philatelic Society’s Expertiser for Brazilian stamps.

In this article, Stephen discusses the extent and prevalence of these forgeries in the market today, the challenges of identifying them and useful resources for the collector.

CLA How did you become a stamp collector?

SR When I was nine, one of my Christmas gifts was an H.E. Harris beginner’s album kit and a packet of 500 assorted world-wide stamps. I was fascinated by the designs, strange languages, and unusual locations. Where in the world was Ifni, Swaziland, Andorra….?

I spent hours using a globe and the Stamp Finder pamphlet included in the kit to puzzle out where each stamp was from. My favorite set was the three rhinoceros from French Equatorial Africa.

I was a dedicated collector until about age 16, when girls suddenly became a more important magnet for what little spending money I had. After that, my collections went into the attic.

During my mid-20’s, my mother sent me an ultimatum: I had two weeks to take the collection out of storage or it would go in the trash (she had already ditched the 1950s comic books and baseball cards, which were far more valuable than my schoolboy world-wide stamp collection). So, I rescued the album and cigar box of duplicates and, now having some discretionary income, switched over to focusing on a general U.S. collection.

After about a decade of this, plus marriage and kids, I realized that individual U.S. stamps were becoming too expensive vs. family needs. So, one weekend I went to the library and worked my way through the Scott catalogs, looking for a country with an interesting classic period that was also relatively cheap.

I eventually zeroed in on Brazil, the second nation to issue postage stamps. The Empire period looked especially promising, along with the airmails. That was 1972, and I have been a fan of Brazil ever since.

Inclinado facsimilies by Mercier, about 1910

CLA What originally got you interested in learning about the forgeries of the Brazilian Empire?

SR The answer is easy – self-protection. About 95% of Brazilian Empire forgeries occur in the first four issues, i.e. the numerals.

Early on, I made a few unwise purchases of this material that turned out to be forgeries and vowed to do what was necessary to be able to distinguish the good from the bad.

Overtime, I built up a private reference collection that eventually morphed into a specialized exhibit of Brazilian forgeries, which won a large vermeil medal at the 2013 international show in Rio de Janeiro.

After that, I sold the collection but kept scans of the 96-page exhibit (available for download below).

The prevalence of forgeries in the market today

CLA How extensively were the numeral issues forged?

SR All 21 of the numeral issues (1843-1861) have been extensively forged.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that most of the forgeries are easy to detect, except for the Sperati bullseyes (Scott #2-3) and the Fournier goat’s eyes (Scott 21-28).

The scarcity of early Brazilian issues encouraged the production of facsimiles, or imitation stamps, sold as such, with no intent to deceive. The roster of those who created Brazilian facsimiles reads like a who’s who of the first generation of philatelic imitators, including Oneglia, Patroni, Zechmeyer and the Spiro brothers.

These early facsimiles were relatively crude productions, but the following generation of forgers active during the early part of the 20^th Century, including Fournier, Mercier, and Sperati, created far more deceptive imitations.

This shift from the open facsimile trade of the 19^th Century to serious efforts to defraud collectors is emblematic of the transformation of philately into a hobby of substance.

CLA How prevalent are forgeries of the numeral issues in the market today?

SR Many of the forgeries are surprisingly scarce, far less numerous than the genuine items.

The truly abundant “album weeds” are the Spiro forgeries. The Spiro brothers were German printers and they mass-produced crude imitations of all four numeral issues in 5×5 sheet format.

Erasmus Oneglia of Italy also created quantities of bullseye facsimiles.

About 90% of bullseye forgeries floating around the market today come from these two sources. Both can easily be recognized by comparing with a catalog illustration of a genuine stamp but even so, some hopeful eBay sellers without much philatelic knowledge continue to list these crude imitations as genuine.

Detecting the forgeries

CLA What are the key challenges in detecting forgeries of the numeral issues?

SR All genuine numeral stamps were engraved using a lathe-turned design with precise geometry. The engraving process has two useful features – intricacy of detail and raised ink lines.

Most forgeries of the numerals were lithographed, which resulted in less detailed images with no ink ridges.

Fournier Goats Eye counterfeit on the left with a genuine example on the right — Fournier Goat’s Eye counterfeit on the left with a genuine example on the right

CLA Can the forgeries be generally identified by design alone? Or is an appreciation of printing method, paper and cancellations also necessary?

SR Identification of Spiro imitations is easy enough through comparison of design alone. Other forgeries usually require examination of design plus paper and cancellations.

It is interesting that most numeral forgeries sport particular cancels developed by the forger. Similarly, some have inappropriately thick paper.

My exhibit of Brazilian forgeries provides an integrated compendium of design, paper, cancel, and identifying flaws for each forgery known to me.

CLA Do intermediate or worn impressions increase the complexity of detecting forged items?

SR In most cases, no. Copper plates used to print the bullseye issue (Scott 1-3) tended to wear rapidly but even worn impressions have sufficient detail to allow identification of genuine stamps.

A bit trickier are the small numerals, which often have murky impressions as well as pronounced double entries on genuine stamps. In fact, double entry of the design is usually an indicator of authenticity, since the lithographic process for the forgeries is not conducive to double entries.

Mercier Goat's Eye facsimiles above, compared with the genuine stamps below — Mercier Goat’s Eye facsimiles above, compared with the genuine stamps below

CLA What are the best sources of information to help the collector?

SR Historically, Earee’s Album Weeds first alerted the collecting world to the prevalence of facsimiles and forgeries. But the lack of illustrations makes this work of limited utility.

The Serrane Guide is excellent but limited in scope, covering only the major forgeries.

The best handbook for Brazililan forgeries is Marcelo Studart’s 1995 Falsificacoes e Fraudacoes na Filatelia Brasileira. This is not currently in print but may be available on the secondary market.

For English-speaking collectors, my 96-page exhibit titled “Brazil – Early Forgeries, Facsimiles & Postal Counterfeits” is the most complete study of these items yet produced.

CLA Tell us about some of the favourite items in your collection.

SR The world’s most skilled philatelic forger was Jean Sperati, who created incredibly precise forgeries of the 60r and 90r bullseyes using sophisticated techniques. Pages 5-8 of my exhibit examine these two forgeries in great detail including proofs, secrets of Sperati’s deceptions and illustrations of all known cancels on his bullseye masterpieces.

These forgeries are very scarce in their own right and worth about as much as a genuine bullseye.

Signed Sperati proof of the 60 reis Bull’s Eye

CLA What advice would you give a collector who is looking to start a collection of the Brazilian Empire issues?

SR The Empire covers far more than just the early numeral stamps. I was particularly fond of the Dom Pedro series printed by the American Bank Note Company between 1865-1878.

These stamps have an abundance of varieties, fancy cancels, and interesting postal history – and only one easily detected forgery of a single stamp in the series!

This Dom Pedro era is analogous to the US banknote period – beautiful stamps, great cancels, and a medley of both pre-UPU and UPU uses.

CLA Do you have any other stamp collecting interests?

SR My main collection now is a six-frame exhibit of the 2c stamp of the U.S. 1869 series. This exhibit has been posted to the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society website.

I also have a one-frame exhibit of the U.S. orange special delivery stamp of 1893. These exhibits have been part of my qualification process as a philatelic judge for U.S. shows.

I write occasional articles for philatelic journals and also serve as the A.P.S. expertizer for Brazil.

Stephen Rose’s full exhibit, “Brazil – Early Forgeries, Facsimilies & Postal Counterfeits”, can be downloaded below.

Download

For further information on the expertization of Brazilian stamps, contact the Brazil Philatelic Association.

The Collector | Eric Stovner | Mexico

The 10 pesos top value of Mexico's Mail Transportation issue — The 10 pesos top value of Mexico’s Mail Transportation issue, also known as the Mulitas

Eric Stovner is a collector of Mexico, specialising in the ‘Mulitas’ issue of 1895-99.

CLA How did you first begin to collect stamps?

ES My grandmother and great-grandmother gave me stamps when I was very young. My mom encouraged me early on, obtained covers for me and I found opportunities to meet with other collectors.

CLA What got you interested in collecting Mexico?

ES I was inspired by reading Dale Pulver’s monthly column on collecting Mexico that ran in Linn’s Stamp News. After purchasing a starter collection, I joined MEPSI (Mexico Elmhurst Philatelic Society International) and was fortunate to attend Chapter One meetings and learn from mentors.

CLA Why is Mexico an interesting area to collect?

ES Mexico stamps are steeped in history. The early stamps were overprinted with postal district names, in order to deter the theft of stamps transported from the printing office to the districts. Cancels on these and subsequent issues have been thoroughly researched and published; I enjoy collecting the town cancels.

Mexico has older and modern rarities, many of which are at reasonable cost. And the MEPSI meetings in Mexico are fantastic!

Complete set of the basic 'Mulitas' issue, showing estimated numbers sold — Complete set of the basic ‘Mulitas’ issue, showing estimated numbers sold

CLA What are your key areas of interest?

ES The Mulitas issue of 1895-1899. Also known as the Mail Transportation issue, the mulitas are the little mules that are illustrated on some of the stamps. I also collect used Mexico and slogan cancel covers.

CLA What have been the main challenges in building your collection?

ES Time. Exhibiting helped force me to learn even more. Another challenge is locating research for specifics on certain mailing rates other than first class and the exact dates when changes occurred.

CLA Tell us about some of your favourite items in the collection.

ES I have a Wells Fargo Express envelope which was carried about eighty miles between small mountain towns in 1897 via stagecoach. The cover states “Urgente – Cerveza y hielo!” (“Urgent – beer and ice!”), directly indicating an important (!) reason that the express services were used.

I also have an Hidalgo Express envelope sent on the first day of use on April 2nd 1895.

Lastly, one of my favourites is a three centavos postal card sent in 1896 to a Colin Gordon at Horny Old Lodge in West Malvern England. It has an interesting message from a tourist describing a lion skin being sent by the day’s parcel post, along with a small tarantula…and “apologies for the small size, but it was hard to catch”…!

“Urgent – beer and ice!” 1897 Wells Fargo stagecoach cover — “Urgent – beer and ice!”. A 1897 Wells Fargo stagecoach cover

CLA If you could add one item to your collection, what would it be?

ES Mexico Scott 278A, five peso with RM Eagle watermark. Why? It’s considered the essential item to have if exhibiting the Mulitas. Difficult to obtain and was last seen at auction in 1999. There are only eight copies known, one with a questionable watermark due to differing expert opinions.

CLA Do you have other (stamp) collecting interests?

ES Yes, worldwide classic (1840-1940) used and I am also interested in forgeries.

CLA What advice do you have for a new collector considering starting a Mexico collection?

ES Join MEPSI and, if possible, attend their meetings and presentations. Get mentorship from experienced Mexico collectors. Get Nick Follansbee’s Catalog. Read Dale Pulver’s book, “Introduction to the Stamps of Mexico”. Enjoy!

You can find out more about collecting Mexican stamps by joining MEPSI at www.mepsi.org

Do you have a collection of Latin America that you would like to share with readers? Drop me a mail at nick@classiclatinamerica.com with your details.

Original ABNC steel plates come to market

So you’ve acquired a nice selection of plate proofs and a few die proofs to enhance your collection. Now how about an original steel plate as the cherry on the cake?

Over one thousand of the American Bank Note Company original, engraved printing plates have recently come to market, offering an unusual opportunity to own the unique plate from which your chosen stamp originated.

And many of these plates are from Latin America.

Most of the plates date from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century and contain many engraved images that will be familiar to Latin America collectors.

Frames, vignettes, intermediate and experimental plates are all represented, along with the finished engravings for both post and revenue stamps.

The original archive was purchased in 2005 and it appears there have been some subsequent small sales since but this holding represents the bulk of the collection.

Additionally, there are plates from a few of the other countries where ABNC made sales, together with a number of US fiscals and cinderellas.

Interestingly, there are also a number of Seebeck issues amongst the collection of plates, with the printing work being undertaken by the Hamilton Bank Note Company.

Every one of the twenty republics is included in the sale; there wasn’t a single country in Latin America that ABNC had not got onto its order books in some form or other.

The collection is being marketed by numismatic dealers David Lawrence and you can view or make purchases through their website at www.davidlawrence.com. There is also an auction planned later this month for a few of the plates but most are being sold at $1500 a piece.

Quite how best to display (mount?!) your new treasure? That, I’m not too sure.

A few more images below to whet the appetite…

Latin American Philately Zooms Forward

The COVID crisis is challenging the status quo in so many aspects of our lives: some for better, some for worse, many unknown.

Stamp collecting, though, has received an unprecedented boost and has been firmly propelled into the digital age (apologies, it now appears compulsory to use the word ‘unprecedented’ at least once in every article these days…).

As for Latin American philately…well, it has been given an extraordinary fillip recently with the introduction of the recently established Mi Oficina (My Office) Philatelic Society.

Every evening, a group of collectors, congregate around their screens to listen to a series of presentations on a diverse range of philatelic subjects.

All without charge, all hosted on Zoom and all of an exceptionally high standard.

Perhaps similar to the sort of presentations you might expect to hear at the Collector’s Club or the Royal Philatelic…except these are happening every night.

And it’s very popular, with over seventy participants attending a typical presentation.

Over 100 presentations to enjoy

Around forty presentations have already been given, including subjects such as Ecuadorian forgeries, early Chilean fiscals, Peru’s 1862 One Dinero, Honduran philately, the Escuditos of Uruguay, Mexican Postal districts…and much, much more.

A further sixty plus future presentations have been booked every night until mid-August with a number of dates booked out up until October. An incredible achievement by the organisers, Alfonso Molina and Henry Marquez, now with the backing of the Inter-Americana Philatelic Federation.

Whatever your interest in Latin American philately, you are sure to find something here that you will not want to miss.

Online forums have been with us for a number of years now but it seems philately is finally embracing the tools that allow collectors to talk, share and discuss without the constraints of a physical presence. This, in turn, increases our international ‘connectedness’ and gives greater exposure to the hobby.

Mi Oficina Philatelic Society You Tube — A selection of previous presentations, available to view on YouTube

Guidance for non-Spanish speakers

A couple of important points to bear in mind:

Firstly, the majority of the presentations are in Spanish only. Not all, but most.

Secondly, depending on where you are in the world, the live sessions may not be timed conveniently for you. All presentations commence at -5 GMT.

However, the presentations are all available on YouTube to be watched at your leisure and can be accessed via the Mi Oficina homepage.

And, if you want to follow along in English (or any other language), the YouTube subtitle feature does a reasonable job of translating the narrative.

Step 1. Choose the presentation you want to watch.

Step 2. Switch on subtitles. This is the first icon at the bottom left of the screen

Step 3. Change language to English or your preferred language. Click on the Settings icon, and navigate to Subtitles and then to Auto Translate where you can pick the language of your choice.

As I mentioned, there is a packed programme of presentations over the next few months with new topics being added on a frequent basis. You can view the full list here or by visiting the FIAF website.

The list of future presentations is in Spanish but viewing the links via Google Chrome will enable an easy translation.

If you’d like to know more or are interested in sharing your own knowledge, you can contact the organisers directly at mioficinaphilatelicsociety@gmail.com.

$800,000+ Venezuela auction kicks off 2020

Venezuela 1859 1 Real blue, rejoined strip of nine. The largest known mint strip in private hands. Low estimate €7500

Auction trends in 2020 and a fabulous collection of Venezuela comes to market

Like so many industries around us, the philatelic auction business has gone into hibernation mode.

The inability for people to gather means the physical perusing of auction lots is not going to happen for a good while yet. Most of the major houses have postponed their spring sales until later in the year. Some of the revised dates look hugely ambitious to me.

I’m not convinced that the pandemic is going to rapidly disappear and things are going to get back to normal all that quickly…

And even when lockdowns are universally lifted, are – let us be honest – predominantly older men going to want to congregate en masse in the close confines of an auction environment?

Possibly not until a freely available vaccine gives one the confidence to mingle with impunity.

Online auctions take centre stage in 2020

Fortunately, we have the benefit of online bidding to fall back on and unless healthy cash balances and patient sellers allow it, I can see many of 2020’s auctions ending up being online only affairs.

Many houses had juicy inventories backed up for the now postponed London 2020 event and sellers will have been waiting patiently, so the pressure will be on from some to either go to market online only or pull their lots for another day, farther into the future.

With good descriptions and clear images, there is no reason why singles and sets shouldn’t do just as well as if the auction were still live.

Collections though, are going to demand more of the auction house.

Buying blind on a collection is always going to be a gamble. This then puts much more emphasis on photographs and spending the time to create many more images for album sales.

More work for the auction house but future sellers are going to be keen to align with auctioneers that can show off their collections in the best light over an internet connection.

Venezuela 1861 cover with 1 Real blue and Half Real orange affixed. One of only two covers of this bicolour franking recorded. Low estimate €3000.

High ticket Venezuela at Spink

Interestingly, Spink have bucked the trend by not postponing and have a phenomenal holding of Venezuela coming to market on 29th April (The “Lugano” Collection).

The last meaningful sale of Venezuela we’ve seen was the Brack auction of 2016. However, this ‘behind closed doors’ sale is solely focused on the 1859-62 first issue. It contains many of the key items of early Venezuelan philately and will need very deep pockets for the high ticket rarities.

Aggregated bid estimates come in at $800,000 plus – and that’s the low estimate. Star billing goes to the 1859 Medio Real Red Error of Colour, billed as ‘The Most Important Item of Venezuela Philately’ at a low estimate of €200,000.

An online only sale of early Venezuela that nets over one million dollars? Let’s see!

Venezuela 1861-62 Half Real orange, marginal block of eight. Low estimate of €2,500

Byerley and Moorhouse auctions postponed

Two important postponed sales to keep an eye on…

Firstly, Part II of the vast Bill Byerley collection of Nicaragua will be offered by Harmers on June 16th. Only eight weeks away so watch to see whether this doesn’t get another postponement.

Secondly, the third part of the late Brian Moorhouse’s dealer stock is being auctioned by Corinphila; now delayed until early September. No doubt this will contain a smorgasbord of Latin American delights from across the continent.

In the meanwhile, as the world self-isolates and gorges on screen time, perhaps philately may be reinvigorated by a house bound, inquisitive audience with a newly found desire to engage with the world through those little bits of coloured paper.

The Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue: a review

The Alexandria ‘Blue Boy’ on the cover of the 2020 edition changed hands last year for $1,000,000 at H. R. Harmer

Once upon a time, Stanley Gibbons’ twin volume South America and Central America catalogues were my daily reference tools.

They are still powerful weapons in the Latin America collector’s armoury but for a number of years, the Scott Classic Specialized has been my ‘go to’ first port of call.

Gibbons hasn’t updated the aforementioned volumes for many years now (see this post on SG Part 20 )…and it doesn’t look like they will.

On the other hand, Scott has a continual programme of annual incremental updating.

Scott’s coverage of ‘on cover’ pricing is also a useful differentiator. It tends to be somewhat haphazard but, where applied, can help illustrate some of the significant premiums for ‘on cover’ examples, particularly the early issues.

Not that I’m suggesting you necessarily need to replace your copy every year (particularly if you only collect one or a handful of countries) but if you’ve not updated for a while, perhaps the start of a new decade is as good a time as any.

With this in mind, I thought I would compare how the recently issued 2020 edition stacks up against an earlier copy from five years ago.

How much changes from year to year?

Just how much has changed? Is it really worth shelling out $125 (plus shipping) when the cash could be put towards adding something interesting to your collection?

As prospective catalogue buyers, we are primarily interested in two categories of information:

What price increases or decreases have occurred since I last bought my catalogue?
What new information has been added to help me with my collection?

It would, of course, make that decision so much easier if it were clearly apparent what changes had occurred between the years. A subtle highlight, perhaps, to show where prices have changed or new data had been included?

Alas, it isn’t going to happen.

The bottom line is that the number of changes is relatively minimal in comparison to the overall number of listings. Updating catalogues is a manual process, gleaned from the efforts of contributing correspondents and a few thorough country reviews.

You’d need an army of researchers to properly review each edition. Even with new tools to hand such as Noble Spirit’s Stamp Market Index (see here), it still takes case by case decisions to commit to changes.

What does this mean for Latin America collectors?

I don’t have the patience to look at each country’s listing in minute detail but I have done a broad sweep, comparing 2015 with 2020 side by side.

With five years between them, how much has changed…?

These are some of the things I noticed:

In Argentina, a significant expansion of the 1864-67 Rivadavia listings; up from nineteen stamps and varieties to fifty entries, primarily being driven by paper types and shades.

In Chile there are now enlarged illustrations showing the differences in the 1894 Columbus types. New additions are found in the 1880-1913 ‘AR’ Postal Fiscals.

Similar to Chile, image enlargements are also spotted in a couple of examples for the Dominican Republic.

There are plenty more future opportunities to improve listings across the catalogue by visually illustrating the differences between types, rather than relying on a description.

In Colombian states, the values were extensively revised in 2019.

Something odd has happened to Haiti with a mass breakout of never-hinged pricing. Every stamp from Scott 1 onwards appears to now be priced for MNH as well as regular mint.

MNH prices now exist for every Haitian stamp to 1940.

Will we see this protocol copied across to other countries? Is it a beneficial development or does it just give the regummers an extra incentive?

Haiti is an inexpensive country to collect and there ain’t much to be make from uplifting a hinged 25c stamp to an unmounted 75c. But apply the same principles to Brazil or Mexico and the temptation will be there.

Venezuela has been shown a disproportionate but very welcome amount of attention in recent years with the inclusion of the 1900-1922 Postal Fiscals. Long since recognised in Gibbons, these sixty-seven new entries had kept many Scott users mystified for a long while.

In 2020, Venezuela has yet again been shown the love with over two pages of new additions dedicated to the Gobierno Nacional perforated officials. This bumps up the number of Venezuela entries by a further one hundred and fifty-six listings.

The GN perforations can be found upright, inverted or sideways

Worth checking any stocks you may have as some of these sets have been allocated significant values. For example, the 1937 Resellado overprint Air Post set comes in at $850 in mint condition.

It’s fair to say that the number of price changes, either up or down, is minimal across the board. A few tweaks and exceptions here or there but for all intents and purposes, values remain broadly static.

That isn’t to say that market prices remain static. The reality is that it is just not feasible to check, review and revise tens of thousands of price points every year without a large team of researchers or some form of dynamic updating. Or even every five years.

And bear in mind, of course, that I’ve only taken a cursory glance at twenty countries. There will certainly be some substantial changes to countries from other regions of the world.

The Scott Classic Specialized is a flawed catalogue. As is every other catalogue, from any other publisher that has come before it.

But despite any limitations it is the best of its kind, improves each year and is a perfect jumping off point from which to dig deeper.

For me, it’s an essential tool.

The Numerals Issues of Brazil – Fakes, Forgeries and Counterfeits