US CSA #4

 Original Issue

Hoyer & Ludwig printing

1862 Reissue stone2

Forgeries

This issue attracted the most forgeries with quality from good to very crude.

Birmingham Forgery

Reproductions of CSA #4 were made some time in the past reportedly in Birmingham, England. The reproductions themselves were lithographed and and are quite good, even finding their way into stamp catalogs. 

The key feature is the end of the bottom right scroll which is quite round but oval in the genuine

Springfield Forgeries

In the mid 1930's a set of 14 counterfeits of the Confederate General Issue stamps was made and sold by a stamp dealer in Springfield, Mass. These facsimiles also showed up in the so called TASCO Booklets prepared in 1941 by Tatham Stamp Company of Springfield, Mass. 

They were produced from a set of original drawings made by August Dietz in 1919 which were not authorized by Dietz. They show up constantly in the online auctions as singles and in the original Tatham booklets.

Most will have the word "Facsimile" on the reverse although some are used on fake covers.

They are found on bleached white paper and yellowish newsprint.

Upham Forgeries

These are very common but pose no problem.

The face is completely wrong and the bottom scroll is incomplete.

They are found in singles and in plates.

Scott Forgeries

Scott of the catalog fame advertised he would pay for any dies that could be used to create forgeries.

The face is obviously wrong.

The following are rather crude example and they are not common.

Moens  forgery

Torres taken from his 1876 catalog