Return To Catalogue - locals Greenwood - Marion - locals Memphis - Nashville - locals New Orleans - Victoria and miscellaneous - Conf. States, general issues - United States
Local issues in the Confederate States were issued in (1861): Athens, Baton Rouge, Beaumont, Bridgeville, Charleston, Danville, Emory, Fredericksburg, Galatin, Gollad, Gonzales, Greenville, Greenwood, Grove Hill, Halletsville, Helena, Independence, Jetersville, Kingston, Knoxville, Lenoir, Livingston, Lynchburg, Macon, Marion, Memphis, Mobile, Mt. Lebanon, Nashville, New Orleans, New Smyrna, Petersburg, Pittsylvania Court House, Pleasant Shade, Rheatown, Salem, Spartanburg, Tellico Plains, Uniontown and Victoria. Information on forgeries and bogus issues can be found on http://www.rfrajola.com/csa/csaindex.htm or at http://members.home.com/kr.baker/csa/fakes/ (Kevin Baker) or at http://www.jlkstamps.com/webpage/index1.htm
(Image obtained from a Siegel auction, other type)
5 c violet (2 types) 5 c red (2 types)
The red stamps are even rarer than the violet ones.
Examples of forgeries:
Bogus issues for Athens:
(inscription 'POST OFFICE ATHENS, GA. 1 c, 2 c and 5 c, value in
black)
I have also seen this bogus issue with a smaller red value inside (3 c red).
(Genuine, reduced sizes, images obtained thanks to a Siegel
auction)
(Genuine, images obtained from a Siegel auction)
(Genuine, image obtained from a Rumsey auction)
2 c green 5 c red and green 5 c red and green (border different) 10 c blue
A misprint of the 2 c green exists with inscription 'McCcrmick' ('c' instead of 'o'):
Misprint of the 2 c, once belonging to the collection of Ferrari.
Forgeries, examples:
Forgery in wrong color (green on yellow) with background pattern
in the same color. I've also seen 5 c red and 5 c dark-green of
this particular forgery.
Some more sophisticated forgeries:
The distance between the tiny background circles should be 4.5 mm, however in the above forgeries it is 3.75 mm. If I'm well informed these forgeries were made by the forger Upham.
Some other primitive forgeries, reduced sizes
Bogus stamp.
(Genuine, image obtained from a Siegel auction)
(Genuine on letter, reduced size, images obtained thanks to a
Siegel auction)
10 c black on yellow 10 c black on lilac
(Bogus issue)
(Sorry, no picture available yet)
5 c black (border red)
Only one pair of these stamps seems to exist.
5 c blue
Bogus issue, I have seen cut squares in a similar design, but
without the dotted background.
Real envelopes with this design exist (without the dotted background):
(genuine envelope, image obtained thanks to a Siegel auction,
reduced size)
(Some other forgeries or essays?)
Charleston P.O. Paid, fort. Two types, note the different 5's
I have also seen a 2 c brown in the above Charleston design. Album Weeds also mentions a 1 c in this bogus design, but I've also seen 10 c values. I have also seen a green stamp in the above design with 'X's in the corners instead of a value. Several colors seem to exist of each value.
Another bogus design for Charleston, now "5 cts." in an
ellipse. I've seen this design in the colors red and black on
yellow, besides the black on green color shown above.
(Genuine on envelope, reduced size, image obtained thanks to a
Siegel auction)
5 c red
Similar stamps but with inscription "J.P.JOHNSON" were issued for Pittsylvania Court House.
I've seenrather deceptive forgeries in red and blue with slightly different lettering and ornaments.
(Reduced size, picture obtained from a Siegel auction)
Image obtained from a Spink auction.
5 c blue
(Reduced sizes)
Genuine? Image obtained from http://www.webuystamps.com/provision.htm
5 c blue 10 c red
I've seen forgeries in wrong colors of the 10 c value: 10 c black on red, 10 c black on lilac, 10 c black on yellow. All of these forgeries have the '10' in much thinner numbers than the genuine stamps shown above.
(Bogus issue, made by Taylor? Note the security underprint on the
blue stamp)
A slightly different forgery, but in a similar design.
(Another bogus issue closely resembling the above one, now with
inscription 'Post Office.')
(Sorry, no picture available yet)
5 c green on yellow
It is not quite clear if this is really a postage stamp.
Image obtained from a Cherrystone auction
10 c; image obtained from a Spink auction.
5 c black 5 c black on red 10 c black 10 c black on red
forgeries exist, example:
(Forgery!)
Other forgery, reduced size
With name of the postmaster left and right
(Genuine, reduced sizes, images obtained from http://www.webuystamps.com/provision.htm
and a Siegel auction) The 10 c stamp belonged to the Ferrari and Hind collection.
Image obtained from a Cherrystone auction; 10 c black on blue
5 c black on grey 5 c black on blue 10 c black on grey 10 c black on blue
'GOILAD' error, stamp once belonged to the Ferrari
collection
The next stamp is probably a forgery:
I've seen a forgery of the 10 c design (with name of the postmaster) in the bogus color red.
(Sorry, no picture available yet)
5 c yellow on blue 10 c yellow on violet
Genuine stamp, image obtained from a Cherrystone auction.
10 c Greenville stamp, once belonged to the famous Ferrari collection
5 c blue and red 10 c blue and red
Apparently two types exist of each stamp.
A certain James A. Petrie discovered the first Greenville stamp. Instead of selling it, he decided to sell a limited number of forgeries of these stamps, which he made himself. He managed to fool everybody (even the Scott catalogue had a picture of his forged stamp instead of the genuine one), until a genuine second copy was found in 1881. Later his fraud was discovered. (source: 'Philatelic forgers, their lives and works' by Varro. E. Tyler). I have not been able to obtain a picture of a Petrie forgery. If anybody has a picture of such a stamp, please contact me!
(Forgeries, wrong colors)
I have seen many other forgeries in the wrong colors.