GERMAN POST OFFICES IN CHINA

Return To Catalogue - Kiautschou.- German Empire

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Before the introduction of its own stamps in 1899, the German post offices in China (first post office founded in Shanghai in 1886) used the stamps of Germany, examples:

(Reduced size)

I have also seen stamps of China with cancel 'K.D. FELD-POSTSTATION No 9' and date in a single circle.

1898 Stamps of the German Empire of 1889, overprinted 'China'

  3 p brown (shades)
  5 p green

Different type (eagle)

  10 p red
  20 p blue
  25 p orange
  50 p brown

Surcharged (Foochow or 'Futschau' overprint)

  '5 pf' on 10 p red (rare, 5 types, only 4000 specimen exist)

(45 degrees angle and a 56 degrees angle overprint)

Specialists distinguish between an overprint with an 56 degrees angle and a 45 degrees angle. Other similar surcharges with a blue line were issued in Kiautschou.

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

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

Some stamps in the value 3 p were cancelled to order with 'K.D. FELDPOSTSTATION No 2' and various dates (if sombody posesses a picture of this cancel, please contact me!).

Forgeries exist of these overprints:

The above two stamps are genuine German stamps used in Berlin. The overprint 'China' is forged afterwards. It is also advisable to check the year of the cancel, if this is consistent with the period of use of these stamps. For more information on forgeries of the German colonies click here.

(Another forged 'China' overprint on a genuine 10 p stamp, the overprint is very thin)

Another forged overprint on a 50 p stamp, the lettering is completely different from a genuine overprint.

(Fournier forgeries)

The forger Fournier also made forgeries of these stamps. He forged the basic stamps and the overprints. The above 3 p forgery is cancelled with '*TSCHINWANGTAU* DEUTSCHE POST 16/2 97'. The 20 p is cancelled with '* TIENTSIN a 10 10 00 DEUTSCHE POST'. Fournier made forgeries of all 6 values (he offers them for 2 Swiss Francs in his 1914 pricelist) and 4 surcharged stamps (5 on 10 p; 4 different typesfor 4 Swiss Francs in his 1914 pricelist). The easiest way to recognize this forgery is the perforation, which is incorrect in the corners (the horizontal and vertical perforation is alligned in the genuine stamps, in the Fournier forgeries it isn't). I'm not quite sure if he also applied his forged overprints to genuine stamps.
The cancels used by Fournier were:
* TIENTSIN a 10 10 00 DEUTSCHE POST
* TSINGTAU a 16/12 00 KIAUTSCHOU'
* KAUMI * 17/2 00 CHINA
TSCHIMWANGTAU * 16/2 97 DEUTSCHE POST
SHANGHAI a 8/3 00 DEUTSCHE POST

Fournier cancels, taken from 'A Fournier Album of Philatelic Forgeries', reduced sizes

1900 Stamps of the German Empire of 1900, overprinted 'China' from the lower left corner to the upper right corner (issued for Tientsin)

  3 p brown
  5 p green
  10 p red
  20 p blue
  30 p orange and black
  50 p violet and black
  80 p red and black on red

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

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

Other stamps with this overprint were prepared (25 p, 40 p, 2 m and 3 M), but they were not issued. These overprints are very rare and have been forged on genuine stamps (I'm not 100 % sure that the above stamps are genuine):

(Forged overprints, even the cancels are forged)

These stamps seem to have been the target of many forgers, in a Senf catalogue of the early 20th century a warning is given against these forgeries (already 13 different type of forged overprints were known back then).

1900 Stamps of the German Empire of 1900, overprinted 'China' in the lower part

  3 p brown
  5 p green
  10 p red
  20 p blue
  25 p orange and black on yellow
  30 p orange and black
  40 p red and black
  50 p violet and black
  80 p red and black on red

Larger size

  1 M red
  2 M blue
  3 M violet
  5 M black and red

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

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

Forged 'China' overprints on 25 p and 50 p stamps, they could have been made by the forger Fournier, since the 'FAUX' overprint is very similar to the ones found on the forgeries in 'The Fournier Album of Philatelic forgeries'.

Pages from a Fournier Album.

(Primitive forged 'China' overprint, the stamp has a cancel 'BERLIN')

Other primitive forged overprints

I know that this overprint has been forged on at least the 'pfennig' values.

In my opinion this is a forged 'China' overprint on a 1 M stamp, it is much larger than on the genuine 1 M stamp above

I've seen 'reprints' of the 1 M and 5 M stamps of Germany with a bogus vertical 'China China' overprint (as in the genuine 3 M stamps).

1905 Stamps of the German Empire of 1903, overprinted 'China' in fancy letters and surcharged in 'cents' or 'dollar'

  1 c on 3 p brown
  2 c on 5 p green
  4 c on 10 p red
  10 c on 20 p blue
  20 c on 40 p red and black
  40 c on 80 p red and black on red

Larger size

  1/2 D on 1 M red
  1 D on 2 M blue
  1 1/2 D (red) on 3 M violet
  2 1/2 D on 5 M black and red

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

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

Two Canton cancels, one written as 'CANTON' and the other 'KANTON'

Stamps - Briefmarken - Timbres-Poste

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