(Fournier forgeries)
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The forger Francois Fournier made a lot of forgeries of France, I have listed some of them here for ease of reference.
(Fournier forgeries)
Possibly another Fournier forgery
I do not know the distinguishing characteristics of the above Fournier forgeries, but I do know that Fournier used the cancel 'PARIS 23 JANV. 49 (60)' as in the above forgery of the 1 F. In my view, the second 'S' of 'POSTES' is too curved at the top in the Fournier forgeries.
Fournier has used forged cancels, examples of these forged cancels (taken from a Fournier Album):
Fournier has also used other forged cancels. Fournier used these cancels on his forgeries. I don't have any further information at this moment.
Apparently, Fournier used the '1032' numeral cancel on a tete-beche 1 F pair of the Napoleon issue, but he also seems to have used it on large Hermes head stamps of Greece.
(Forgeries)
In the above forgeries, the hair just above the forehead is quite different from the genuine stamps. Also note the insertion of the value part (especially visible in the 20 c forgery). I've been told that these forgeries were also sold by Fournier (could this be the second choice forgeries that he offers?). Other sources say these forgeries were made by Spiro. I have also seen the 10 c brown (with cancel), 15 c green (with cancel) and the 20 c black (without cancel) and 25 c blue (with and without cancel).
In the above stamps a 25 c and 1 F of this forgery is found printed together with a Napoleon III forgery of the same value. This proves that these two stamps were made by the same forger.
Most likely a Fournier forgery of the 1 F value, the cancel
'1032' is known to have been forged by Fournier (see the cancels
under Ceres forgeries above)
This Fournier forgery of the 5 F value was also used to illustrate Fournier's 1914 pricelist (also reprinted by Ragatz in 1947). Under 'Envois a choix' exactly this forgery is illustrated (without cancel). Note that the 'C' of 'FRANCAIS' does not have a cedilla, also note the strange 'S' of this word. Fournier also seems to have sold this forgery as in the above example. The stamp itself can also be found in this album under 'Epreuve des cliches dont les timbres n'existent plus au stock'. Here it has a 'BAR S-AUBE 2E/1 FEVR 71 (9)' cancel as can be found in 'The Fournier Album of Philatelic Forgeries'. The stamp next to it is also a Fournier forgery, now with a '17 Star Cancel'. By the way, another forgery of the 5 F value can also be found in this album.
This is an imperforate 50 c forgery made by Fournier probably taken from a 'Fournier
Album of Philatelic forgeries', the ornament left to the word
'CHIFFRE' is not as symmetric as in the genuine stamps. The white
dot to the right of this ornament is placed too far away from the
curly parts of the ornament. Many lines that are double in the
genuine stamps (top of 'CHIFFRE', outer right frameline etc.)
have become a single line in Fournier's forgeries.
Fournier forgeries of the 1 F black and 5 F black values.
Block of 3 Fournier forgeries, consisting of the 1 F, 2 F and 5 F
brown. The 1 F has a dot to the right of the 'R' of 'PERCEVOIR'.
The 2 F has the bottom of the 'S' of 'FRANCS' smudged. The 5 F
has a tiny dot to the left of the 'R' of 'PERCEVOIR' and another
tiny dot outside the stamp next to the upper right corner
ornament.
A whole block of black Fournier Type I forgeries, containing all
values
The Fournier Type I forgeries can be
distinguished by:
1 c: The frameline above the upper left 'RF' is irregular
There is a small black line in the white line above the 'R' of
'CHIFFRE' (I'm not sure if this is always the case)
2 c: There are two breaks in the upper frameline above 'CH'.
3 c: The right bottom corner has a downwards extension.
4 c: There is a tiny dot in front of the '4'.
5 c: ?
10 c: The 'R' of 'PERCEVOIR' has a white space in the left leg.
15 c: The bottom right corner is rather smudged (I don't know if
this is always the case).
20 c: There is a tiny dot in the upper part of the banderole next
to the 'S' of 'CENTIMES'.
30 c: A small dot appears just above the lower curl of the '3'.
40 c: There is a dot between the 'V' and 'O' of 'PERCEVOIR'.
60 c: There is a tiny dot on top of the 'R' of 'PERCEVOIR'.
1 F: There is a dot behind the 'R' of 'PERCEVOIR' (exists in
black and brown)
2 F: The bottom of the 'S' of 'FRANCS' is badly done (exists in
black and brown)
5 F: There is a tiny dot to the left of the 'R' of 'PERCEVOIR'
and another tiny dot outside the stamp next to the upper right
corner corner ornament (exists in black and brown)
Besides the mute cancels and numeral cancels shown above, Fournier used many other cancels, here is a list as it can be found in 'The Fournier Album of Philatelic Forgeries':
'ANNEC 7E10 NOV 51 HTE SAVOIE'
'BAR -S- AUBE 2E/1 FEVR 71 (9)' on 5 F Napoleon
'BORDEAUX 7 JANV. 51 (23)'
'BORDEAUX 12 JANV 50 (32)'
'CAEN JUIN. 69 *' date later added?
'CLUSES 2E/22 OCT 91 HAUTE-SAVOIE'
'GRENOBLE 7E/21 DEC ?? ISERE'
'LE HAVRE 28 MAI 49 (74)'
'LYON 19 NOV. 49 (68)'
'LYON 21 JANV. 51 (68)'
'METZ FEV 69 ***' on telegraph stamps? date later added?
'MOLSHEIM JUIN 69 * * *' on telegraph stamps, date later added?
'MONS-EN-BAROEUL 16 MARS 89 NORD'
'NANTUA 3E/15 JUIL 82 AIN'
'PARIS 6E/21 FEVR. 70 R.DU PONT-NEUF' on postage due issue of
1871
'PARIS 38 2E/15 JUIN 92 R.CLAUDE BERNARD'
'PARIS 12 BD BEAUMARCHAIS 8E/12 DEC 94'
'PARIS 23 SEPT. 50 (D) 60 (D)'
'PARIS 4E/13 OCT. 67 (60)' on postage due of 1859
'PARIS 4E/7 NOV. 83 R. LAFAYETTE'
'PARIS 23 JANV. 49 (60)' on 1 F Ceres
'PARIS 1 FEVR. 51 (60)'
'SALVIAC 7E/10 NOV 91 LOT'
'SOMMEVOIRE 1E/31 AOUT. 71 (50)'
'SOULAINES 1E/30 JUIL. 71 (9)'
'UZES 2E/14 NOV 89 GARD'
'VERSAILLES 2E/28 AVRIL. 71 (72)'
'WASSY-S-BLAISE 3E/1 SEPT 71 (50)'
A fragment of an envelope which is most likely a Fournier forgery
of the 40 c with cancel 'LE HAVRE 28 MAI 49 (74)'
An album page with all the cancels used by Fournier on his
forgeries of the stamps of France, reduced size.
Fournier forgeries of the 1 F and 2 F postage due stamps; both
with cancel 'NANTUA 3E/15 JUIL 82 AIN'