Very primitive forgeries of the 1 g and 6 g values with inscription 'GRAZIA' and 'GRAZIE' instead of 'CRAZIA' and 'CRAZIE'
Toscana - Toscane - Toskana
Return To Catalogue - Tuscany 1851 issue, forgeries, part 2 - Tuscany Fournier forgeries - Tuscany 1851 issue - Tuscany 1860 issue and miscellaneous - Italy
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Album Weeds gives already 13 (!) forgeries for this issue. The genuine stamps have watermarks (though some forgeries have also a watermark) and were printed on rough handmade paper. Some of these forgeries are very deceptive. The genuine stamps have a small cross on top of the crown. However, this is often hardly visible and will become a spike. The cross should be under the left hand side of the vertical stroke of the 'T' of 'POSTALE'. If the cross is clearly visible, then the stamp is 'suspect'.
Very primitive forgeries of the 1 g and 6 g values with
inscription 'GRAZIA' and 'GRAZIE' instead of 'CRAZIA' and
'CRAZIE'
1 s forgery with 'PD' cancel and 2 s forgery brown(?)
'Misprint'(?) '1 SOLDI' instead of '1 SOLDO' and 2 s made by the
same forger.
(Front and backside of a 60 crazie forgery)
The above forgery has no spike on top of the crown. The face of the lion looks more like a bear. The foot of the lion is very poorly done. The inscriptions are also very poor (for example the 'S' of 'POSTALE'). The ornaments in the corners consist of just four small leaves. The bottom line has no breaks in it, but is continuous. In spite of its primitive appearance, I have seen this stamp been offered as genuine on a E-bay auction in 2003 and it was sold for $US710 (!). This forgery is also described in Album Weeds (first forgery). I have seen the 60 c value with a cancel consisting of parallel lines forming an ellipse.
Another forgery with the cross on the crown exactly below the center of the 'T' of 'POSTALE'. The face looks more like a monkey than a lion. I think this is the second forgery described in Album Weeds. The foot on the shield is very poorly done. Also note that the lettering is different from the genuine stamps (for example the 'S' of 'POSTALE'). It exists with a range of bogus cancels.
I have seen the same forgery (value 6 crazie) with cancel 'PD':
I presume the above forgeries are the fifth forgery described in Album Weeds. The cross is located exactly under the 'T' in this stamp. The crosses in the corners are also not as in the genuine stamps. The easiest test is the fourth toe on the front leg of the lion, it is backward pointing in this forgery (in the genuine stamps it is not).
The above forgery has many differences with the genuine stamps, the letters in 'POSTALE' are different ('O' fatter, 'S' thinner etc.), the shield has a smaller centre design, the '4' is more to the right than the genuine etc.
(Another forgery, note the small '2' in the 2 c values)
The design of the above forgeries is very blur and the colour differ considerably from the genuine stamps. I have also seen the 2 c value with the 'parallel lines' cancel as shown in the 4 c value.
I possess the values 1 q, 1 s, 1 c, 2 c, 6 c and 9 c of this particular forgery. The 2 s, 4 c and 60 c also exist (see images above). In all those values a white dot can be found between the crown and the 'A' of 'POSTALE'. Also, the line below the value inscription is continuous. They are printed with very large margins in between the stamps (about 1/2 the size of the stamp). More of these forgeries for other Italian States can be found by clicking here. I'm not 100 % sure, but the next forgery of the 60 c value might have been made by the same forger:
Forgeries with '60 CRAZIE' too large (these could also be the
reprints perhaps?).
This 9 c stamp has the wrong value inscription '9 CRAZIA' instead of '9 CRAZIE'! Also the '9' has a very weird shape.
The above stamp is actually a 1 Cr stamp (one of the cheaper stamps in this series), the '1' and 'A' of '1. CRAZIA' have been skillfully removed and replaced with '60' and 'E' to make a 60 Cr stamp! (image obtained thanks to Lorenzo)
The crown on this 2 s forgery is very large and bright
These forgeries all have the bottom frameline continuous (no holes as in the genuine), the crown very clear. On some values the value is placed too far to the right. I think they were all made by the same forger. Sometimes, they are offered as 'rare reprints' on Internet auctions. I've mostly seen them uncancelled. In the 4 c value, the '4' is closed at the top (genuine stamps have an open '4'). In the several copies I've seen of the 6 c, part of the front leg is missing. I have also seen the 4 c forgery with a cancel consisting of a few blotches.
Two of these forgeries, pasted on part of a letter, in the 1 s,
the second 'O' of 'SOLDO' is too far to the left. In the 6 c,
part of the front leg is missing.
Two rows of forgeries, apparently made by the same forger:
A very badly done forgery of the 2 s value. All the lettering is very bad. Due to the heavy cancel consisting of horizontal lines, I can't really see the lion. Also a forgery of the 1 s value made by the same forger; here the lion is also barely visible.
In this forgery, the tail of the lion does not go low enough. The dots on the shield are entirely missing. A similar forgery of the 2 soldi can be found at the site: http://forgeriesofitalianstates.com/Tuscany/Tuscany.htm (with identical cancel).
These forgeries have an extra very thick outer frameline. The
back of the lion is very heavily shaded. They often appear with a
'18 LUG 1855 LIVORNO' or 'PISTOLA 19 LUG 1850' cancel. The 'O' of
'POSTALE' is too round.
Forgery of the 1 Q stamp with the 'S' of 'POSTALE' very badly
done and an upwards bottom right part of the 'Q' of 'QUATTR'.
Extremely badly done forgery of the 1 Q value....
Forgery of the 60 c with very skinny '60'.
Some forgeries of the 60 c stamp:
Two forgeries of the 2 soldi stamp, one with 'PONTEDERA 23 GIU
56' cancel, next to it a 1 Soldo forgery with a 'PONTEDERA 10 FEB
56' cancel, possibly made by the same forger?
Other forgeries:
Two deceptive forgeries
Very primitive forgery of the 1 Cr value, lion has weird face,
small crown and almost straight hair. This forgery is identical
to the image provided in the John Edward Gray 'The Illustrated
Catalogue of Postage Stamps' of 1870 (except that it is in black
color there). It might have been based on this image or have been
reprinted from the plates to make the book.
Other very primitive forgeries: 2 Crazie black on yellow and 2
Crazie black on green.
Tuscany 1851 issue, forgeries, part 2