CARELIA (Karjala, Karelia)

Return To Catalogue - Finland - Russia

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A territory between Finland and Russia, in 1922 stamps were used during several days in an attempt to join the territory to Finland.

1922 Arms, bear, inscription 'KARJALA 1921'

(left genuine, right forgery, note the different 'J' in 'KARJALA', image obtained from the forgeries idenfication site of Bill Claghorn.)

  5 p brown
  10 p blue
  20 p red
  25 p brown
  40 p lilac
  50 p green
  75 p yellow
  1 M red and brown
  2 M green and black
  3 M blue and black
  5 M lilac and black
  10 M brown and black
  15 M green and red
  20 M red and green
  25 M yellow and blue

The values 5 p to 1 M had 20,000 stamps printed of each value, the higher values were printed 15,000 copies each.

vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon

*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare

Information concerning forgeries:
The bottom of the 'J' of 'KARJALA' is pointing towards the left in the genuine stamp, while in the forgeries it points in the direction of the left bottom corner. Furthermore the shading on the sword is much less in the forgery. The eyes are also different (they are clearer in the genuine stamp). The value inscriptions also differ for some values (I haven't seen all values of the forgeries). More information about these forgeries can be found on http://www.firstissues.org/ficc/main/can_you_tell.shtml. This forgery might have been made by the Italian stamp forger Imperato (see http://www.jaysmith.com/Resource/Articles/Karelia_1922_Forgeries_and_Genuine_Stamps.html). These forgeries exist of all 15 values. Much more information can also be found at: posthorn.scc-online.org; The prolific forgeries of Karelia; the author warns that the 'J' identification might not always work and proposes to check the NNN patterns above the bear instead.
Genuine stamps with forged postmarks also exist.

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer