On August 27, 1918, the Zarki city council requested permission from the officer in charge of Civil Affairs to issue a local post.
On September 18, 1918, the city council requested permission to collect delivery payments and issue stamps.
The district military command issued permits on September 30, 1918 and requested 5 stamps of each denomination as samples.
The post began and ended operation shortly after in October, 1918, only having issued one stamp design featuring the Zarki Catholic church (church image right).
It is proposed that either postmaster Peter Franczak directed the efforts or that well known stamp dealer Szlojme Abramsohn (Abramson) persuaded Franczak and authorities to begin the post.
Subsequent events regarding forgeries show that Abramsohn might have been motivated to do this for his own financial gain.
Delivery service was established with rates denominated in Heller (h) ,the currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that occupied the region at the time.
Delivery rates were 3h for newspapers and postcards, 5h for letters, and 12h for registered and express mail.
This issue is very common in WW collections and more forgeries than originals exist
October 10, 1918
The CV’s used or unused are relatively the same but genuine covers are scarce.
10,000 each of denominations 3h (blue), 5h (red), and 12h (yellow-olive) were printed on medium white paper perfed 11.5 in sheets of 10 x 5, but only 5,000 of each were issued. The remainder were held and used for surcharging
Types of the First Issue
All 3h values are identical. There are 2 minor variations of the 5h and 12h values of this issue depending on plate position.
Forgeries
Forgeries are very plentiful. I would say 90% on auction sites are forgeries.
Many generally reputable sites have forgeries for sale.
After the closure of the local post on October 28, 1918 and all genuine stock was exhausted, Abramsohn sought to fulfill philatelic demand for the original stamps by printing forgeries at the Adolph Panski lithography printing works in Piotrków.
The period packet and stamp trade spread these forgeries throughout Europe and North America.
All forgeries that Abramsohn printed used the same design, so forgeries of all nine original issued values share the same properties and are thus easy to find.
Forged sheets contain alignment marks that are not present on genuine sheets. These are visible only on certain portions of the sheet.
The key features of the forgeries compared to the originals
The wagons are much more distinct in the genuine with finer lines and clear white spaces
The bottom letters are more uniform in the genuine. NOTE the shape of the 2nd a
In addition, the clouds are generally better outlined in the genuine with finer shading lines.
Other ways ways in which forgeries of Zarki stamps differ from the genuine stamps:
1. Forgery has 2 rows of white bricks, genuine has 3 rows.
2. Forgery has crescent in window @ 9 o'clock position, genuine closer to 8 o'clock.
3. Forgery has the left person in the "group of 3" appearing shorter than the other 2, genuine- all in the group are roughly the same height.
4. Forgery has the r & k in "Zarkach" touching, genuine does not have the r & k touching.
5. Forgery has the tree tops appearing heavy, genuine has tree tops appearing light & wispy.
6. Forgeries come perf and imperf, genuine exist only perf 11.5.
7. Forgeries are mainly uncancelled, genuine exist cancelled and uncancelled.
8. Forgeries usually have paper that does not fluoresce under black light, genuine paper fluoresces.
October 18, 1918
Rates were doubled and 5,000 each of newly issued stamps were hand-stamped in pairs with the new values.
The 6h and 24h values used a red hand-stamp, while the 10h value used a violet hand-stamp.
Hand-stamp values using incorrect colors have been identified as forgeries although there may be some rare errors.
There is one scarce 6h stamp (see below) that the wrong color overprint was used and a second stamp was applied with the correct color.
Given the low production numbers and demand, forgeries greatly outnumber originals.
Genuine Overprints
Forged Overprints
The fake overprints tend to be very poorly applied.
Note the guide lines on the fake imperf. These only occur on some sheet positions.
Forgeries
Above genuine cancels.
24 November 1918
Final edition of stamps.
New colors and new values. Lithography. Withdrawn on October 28, 1918. Circulation: approx. 5,000 units of each values
Values 6h (violet), 10h (green), and 24h (orange) without hand-stamps.
There are 2 very minor varieties of each value
This series has the same features as the first set of forgeries
These exist as imperfs also
Cancels
Fake cancels exist
Generally only a portion is visible and rarely very clear
Above a forgery with fake cancel.
Cancellation stamp of the city post office and K.u.K. STAGE POSTAL OFFICE day stamp
Genuine Zarki cancellations (left image) are 36mm in diameter, while fake cancellations are 34mm in diameter
The spacing between the inner and outer circle is 5.2mm in diameter in the genuine cancellation and only 4.5mm in the fake cancellations.
NOTE the narrow space between the circle frames and the lack of the inner thin frame line.
References
Stadtpostämter im besetzten Polen 1915 – 1918 - Stefan Petriuk 1985
Poland: Fischer Catalog Vol. II. 2010
Poland 1918 Locals. J. Barefoot 1999
Focus on Forgeries: Tyler, Varro E. 2000
Kronenberg Collection: 1918-1919 Local Issues
Various websites, auctions and forums
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