FRANCE 1900-1902

Return To Catalogue - France overview

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1900 So called "Blanc" type, angles and justice

  1 c grey
  2 c brown
  3 c orange
  4 c brown
  5 c green
  7 1/2 c violet (precancelled) (1926)
  10 c violet (1929)

Surcharged

  '1/2 centime' (red) on 1 c grey (1919)

These stamps are perforated 14 x 13 1/2.

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

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

(Special cancel '5' in a circle and precancel 'AFFRANCHis POSTES')

The overprint exists inverted or double (all very rare), forgeries exist! Here a forgery of a double overprint:

(Forged double overprint)

Stamps with overprint 'ANNULE' or 'SPECIMEN' for the so-called 'Cours d'Instruction'; a cours for postal workers, examples:

For stamps with overprint T.E.O. see French Levant (Syria)

1900 So called "Mouchon" type, sitting woman, inscription "DROITS DE L'HOMME"

'POSTES' in the right upper corner

  10 c red
  15 c orange
  20 c lilac
  25 c blue
  30 c violet

Overprinted 'F.M' (Franchise Militaire = military stamp)

  15 c orange

"POSTES" in the middle of the top of the stamp (1902)

(Example of a 'Millesime')

  10 c red
  15 c orange
  20 c brown
  25 c blue
  30 c violet

Overprinted 'F.M' (Franchise militaire = military stamp)

  15 c orange

These stamps are perforated 14 x 13 1/2.

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

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

For stamps with overprint T.E.O. see French Levant (Syria)

The 'FM' overprint is known to be forged.

The stamp forger Fournier made forgeries of the "F.M." overprint. Here a page from the Fournier Album.

1900 So called "Merson" type, lying woman

  40 c red and blue
  45 c green and blue
  50 c brown and blue
  60 c violet and blue
  1 F red and green
  2 F violet and yellow
  2 F orange and green
  3 F violet and blue
  3 F lilac and red
  5 F blue and yellow
  10 F green and red
  20 F lilac and green

Overprinted
  'CONGRES PHILATELIQUE DE BORDEAUX 1923' on 1 F red and green
  'EXPOSITION PHILATELIQUE LE HAVRE 1929' on 2 F orange and green
  
Airmail (1927), overprinted 'Poste Aerienne'

Reduced sizes, forged overprints exist.

  2 F orange and green
  5 F blue and yellow

These stamps are perforated 14 x 13 1/2. The airmail stamps were issued only at the Aviation Exhibition in Marseilles in June 1927.

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

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

These stamps overprinted with value in 'PIASTRES' were issued for the French Post Offices in Turkey.

For stamps with overprint T.E.O. see French Levant (Syria)

Forgeries of these stamps are described in: http://www.coppoweb.com/merson/fr.faux.php or http://asppi.org/faux/forbin.htm, where Forbin, Fournier and other forgeries are described (in French). Mainly the 5 F and some overprints were forged if I understood well from these websites.

I've been told that this is a Forbin forgery of the 5 F value. This forgery was sold by the Paris stamp dealer Forbin, it is not known who produced it. According to the following site: http://www.coppoweb.com/merson/fr.forbin.php?PHPSESSID=c2a10dc7428d9cf09932daa0f31e99f5, it was a Spanish engraver. They were sold by Mr. Sibiesco (real name Sibirsky) and Mr. Grosswald on behalf of Forbin. Similar forgeries of the 1 F, 2 F and 5 F value exist for Alexandrie, Crete, Dedeagh, Levant, Maroc, Port-Said and Zanzibar. Many different cancels were used.

(Imperforate Hialeah forgeries of the 5 F 'Poste Aerienne' stamp, reduced size)

Probably a Hialeah forgery (imperforate), the printing is rather blur

Recently, some Hialeah forgeries were offered in large quantities on Ebay. They are simply produced with a computer scanner and printer. The quality of the image is very bad, I have seen them only imperforate (all values). They also exist (imperforate) with the 'CONGRES PHILATELIQUE DE BORDEAUX' of 1923, the 'EXPOSITION PHILATELIQUE LE HAVRE' overprint of 1929 and the 'Poste Aerienne' overprint of 1929. These overprints were also made inverted and double by the Hialeah forger.

These stamps exist overprinted 'ANNULE' for the so-called 'Cours d'Instruction'; a cours for postal workers, examples:example:

('ANNULE' once, reduced size)

('ANNULE' printed twice on a 1 F stamp)

Fiscal Stamp in the Merson design with inscription 'ASSURANCES SOCIALES' in the value 5 F

A minisheet with a facsimile of the Le Havre overprint exists and was issued in 1979. It has the text 'EXPOSITION PHILATELIQUE MUNICH 1979' (Munich instead of Le Havre). The minisheet has further the text '25 Jahre Arbeitsgemeinschaft Frankreich e.V. FRANCOPHILA '79'.

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer