Greece 1861-76 Part 1

 This is one of the most forged series of Europe.

At least 9 different printings took place between Paris and Athens.

This blog will concentrate on the 1861 series and the forgeries of 1861-76.

As it is very difficult to categorize the forgeries as to which printing they represent, they will be classed by the forger.

Genuine 1861 Series

He(Hellas)  1  Deep Brown & 2 Olive Bistre

He 3a Yellow Green & 3b Green

He 4 Yellowish Orange  & 5 Blue

He 6 Mauve on bluish & 7 Carmine

Genuine Features

The key feature is the (1)  upper left corner design (the first wavy line) should have a break near the bottom in all genuine stamps.

NOTE - only the Alisaffi forgeries have a few with the break

There are 88 pearls (4), all neatly arranged

1876/77 Paris/Athens special printing

I am including these 2 additional new values for comparison purposes

He 43a Paris, He 45b Athens

He 44a, He 46a

The main differences between the Paris & Athens printings are the beard shading lines

In the Paris prints they tend to be series of dots and dashes while inn the Athens prints they are solid lines as seen below.

The Forgeries

Spiro Brothers

These are the earliest known forgeries sold by Spiro of Hamburg and made by an unknown forger. They are called "The Poor Sad Hermes"

Full Sheets in 5x5 and 5X3 format

Alisaffi Forgeries

Alisaffi was a stamp dealer and forger from Istanbul who while living in Paris (1902) produced excellent forgeries if Greek stamps.

Alisaffi produced and sold his forgeries without gum and without cancellation something which the authorities alowed him to do.

Stocks of his stamps, and perhaps the original dies as well, passed through the hands of other dealers in forgeries, and certainly in some quantity to Fournier. Gum was added, sometimes postmarks were applied, some of the forgeries were perforated and sometimes they were given forged overprints. 

The break in the first wavy line in the upper left spandrel close to the medallion was sometime reproduced so it not being there is proof of a forgery but not always.

Type I Paris?

Type II Athens?

Later Printings

1876 with 2nd dot below last top dot

1880 with 2nd dot below last top dot

Rare issue with 2 dots under the bottom T

Top right lower meander missing

Uneven letters no crossbar in top A thick line back of hair

Break in upper panel below MM series dots below beard shading

Imperato Forgeries

Only the 2 Paris 1876 printing

Overall very well done

Plate Proof

Sperati Forgeries

Undoubtedly the finest of all the forgeries

With Sparta #32 cancel

With Tripoli #18 cancel

Features

1. In the top right corner ornament there extra white spots between the petals

2. Just above and to the left of the spacing dot in the top panel is a smaller white spot

3. The two white pearl directly in front of the nose are joined to the white circular line