Note: on my website many of the
pictures can not be seen! They are of course present in the cd's;
contact me if you want to purchase them: evert@klaseboer.com.
More information about this company can be found at: http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/pacific.html, I quote from this site: "Formed in London in 1838, the company commenced operations on the West Coast of South America in 1840. In 1852 they were granted the British Government Mail contract to the area."
1 Rl blue 2 Rls red
Value of the stamps |
|||
vc = very common c = common * = not so common ** = uncommon |
*** = very uncommon R = rare RR = very rare RRR = extremely rare |
||
| Value | Unused | Used | Remarks |
| 1 rl blue | RRR | RRR | |
| 2 rls red | RRR | RRR | |
| Non issued values | RR | - | In other colours than the above mentioned |
Both of these stamps were also prepared in blue, red, brown, yellow and green, but never put into use (though 'The World of Classic Stamps' by J.A.Mackay states that some were used, recognizable by the oval numeral cancels used by this company). The 2 stamps were bought by the Peru government from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and used from the 1st of December 1857 till the 1st of March 1858 to be used on letters between Lima and Chorillos. These stamps are very rare in used condition. Stamps used in Peru have cancels with the name Lima (with or without date) and Callao.
I've been told that this is a genuine stamp with a Lima cancel.
This stamp is cancelled with a numeral "6" cancel, I
don't know if it is genuine or not (could this be a stamp used by
the PSNC company itself?).
I've been told that the next stamps are engraved proofs of this issue:
Many forgeries exist. Earee says in his 'Album Weeds': "I really think that the forgeries of these stamps are more abundant than any other counterfeit described in this book". He distinghuishes three types of forged 1 r stamps and five types of forged 2 r stamps.
There seem to be at least 8 distinct types of Pacific Steam Navigation Company forgeries. In the genuine 1 Rs stamp the dot behind the 'S' is joined to the shadow of it, in the quite common Spiro forgery there is a clear space between the 'S' and the dot. I don't know if this can also be applied to the 2 Rls stamp.
The above forgeries can easily be recognised. In the genuine 2 Rls stamp the ship is sailing from the left to the right hand side. However here it is sailing from right to left as in the 1 Rl stamp!
Another forgery of the 2 Rls with the ship sailing in the wrong
direction. Note that the ship is very blurred. I have also seen
this particular forgery in the colours orange (see image above),
blue, green and brown. The cancels I've seen are bars or a
pattern with dots with 'PG2' in the center, etc.
Probably Spiro forgeries:
(Spiro cancels, reduced sizes)
(Complete sheet of Spiro forgeries, reduced size)
Another forgery, the ship is quite different from the genuine stamps:
This particular forgery is one the crudest and rarest of the many PSNC forgeries ever produced. I think it is the fourth forgery mentioned in Album Weeds. The ship is sailing in the right direction, but the rest of the design is very crude, for example the inner chain pattern in the ellipse bearing the ship only has twenty-nine links (there should be 49).
Very primitive forgeries:
(Reduced sizes)
I have seen the following values of the above primitively printed forgeries (made in India?): 1 r red, 1 r orange, 1 r green, 1 r blue, 2 r red, 2 r orange, 2 r green and 2 r blue. The ship in the 2 r values is saling in the right direction. They are all cancelled with an English 'B?2' cancel (I can't read the number in the middle).
The next forgeries are also very blotchy, also note that some of them bear a French numeral cancel:
In the 2 rs value, the ship is saling in the wrong direction again.
Young forgeries?
I've been told that the above forgeries were made by Chauncey.L.Young (before 1921), I have no further information. According to www.bondskeuringsdienst.nl/BKD.pps, the value 1 Rl was also forged by Young.
(A more sophisticated forgery)
Forgeries with a taller letters in the corners (especially the
"P" and the "N"). In the 1/2 R, the bottom of
the '2' not curved and the flag at the back of the ship hanging
too low.
Forgery(?) with very large '1' and '2'
Very primitive forgery.
I know that the forger Zechmeyer has produced forgeries of these stamps in 1862. They must be very primitive, but at least the ships are sailing in the right direction (sorry, no images available).
The forger Giovanni Patroni also made forgeries of these stamps (V.E.Tyler, 'Philatelic Forgers, their Lives and Works'), if anyone has more information, please contact me! According to Tyler a description of these forgeries can be found in 'The Philatelist 39, 199-202, 1973).