Ionian Islands 1859

Greek Single-island and inter-island postal rates were required, as well as one that would cover mail to Greece, but there was some debate over which unit of currency should be used, the British penny, or the local obol?

It was decided to avoid denominations altogether and code the rates by color. 

The genuine orange stamps don't have a watermark, the blue stamp has a '2' (this stamp was originally intended to serve as a 2 d stamp) and the red stamp has a watermark '1' (this stamp was intended to serve as a 1 d stamp first)

All three stamps were printed from the same plate, with only a change in color.  

50,000 sets were recess printed by Perkins, Bacon & Co and they went on sale on June 15, 1859.

Charles H. Jeens engraved the queen's head after a Henry Corbould drawing.  

A Corbould drawing also was the inspiration for the Penny Black.

Genuinely cancelled stamps are very scarce, so forged cancellations abound.

On June 28, 1864 Greece took possession of the islands, invalidating the Ionian Islands stamps and putting Greek stamp use in their place.

The abundant remaining stocks of obsolete Ionian Islands stamps were eventually sold to the stamp trade, creating a glut on the market (at least temporarily).

Genuine Stamps

Watermarks

Forgeries

The original source of these forgeries is very much in doubt.

Fournier, Spiro, Panelli, Oneglia, Torres and others produced or sold these but there was obvious interaction between them.

Most forgeries display characteristics of other forgeries which may in part  be due to copying other forgeries rather than the rare originals.

So, as a guide I am presenting groups (in no particular order) that have similar characteristics.

Type I

Queen has thick eyebrow and pointed nose

Large top hole in the end of the belt

The KP is joined

The right leg of the first K is lacking a complete serif

The top right of the N is curved

Type II

The key feature is the poorly designed eye

The right side of the last letter is too long and the left side lacks the extended serif

There is only one hole on the right of the buckle instead of 2

Type III

The queen has a staring vacant look

The top right leg of the K's are too long

Only one hole right of the buckle

There is a flaw in the middle of the neck that repeats on all the values

Type IV

The top hole at the end of the belt is large

The KP is joined

The left side of the last letter is distorted

Based on the cancel (fake), this may be a Spiro and/or Fournier

Type V

This set matches the sample in the Torres catalog

The key feature is the thin frameline that the letters are attached to.

The top right branch of the K's are very long

The queen has a wide eyed look

The letters are taller

Type VI

The queen has a curved pointed nose

The eyes are piercing and heavily shaded

The buckle is smaller

The O's are smaller

The P has a short leg

The cancel that appears on others of this set is a typical B62 Hong Kong cancel

Type VII

These are almost identical to the type IV except for the added hole beneath the last letter

There are also minor differences in the letters.

Type VIII

Overall these are very well made

They may be from Oneglia or Panelli

They can be found with very large margins - these images were cropped

The key feature is the last letter which is tilted

Fournier

It is well accepted that Fournier sold forgeries produced by others.

These sheets from the Geneva Fournier collection and identical to the Type VI above.

Type IX

The key feature is the wider letters and the narrow N

Several of the letters have the tops cut off

The queen has an angry look

The eyebrow is heavily shaded

Primitive - Sources unknown

Very crude & rough design.

Possibly a product from India

Another very crude design

Face heavily dotted

Letters do not match

Note the broken buckle

These show up more frequently than the others above

The letters do not match

The face is heavily striated and indistinct