Switzerland 1919 Sc C1 & C2

 The first 2 airmail stamps of Switzerland routinely come up in the common auctions. The are for the most part fakes unless accompanied with a recent certificate by a Swiss expert.

Genuine Issues

The modern forgeries can be very deceptive and ALL the parts of the overprint need to be compared including..

1. The curvature of the wings

2. The separation width between the feathers.

3. The exact shape of the openings in the central disk

4. In particular the angle of the last bottom feather

5. The overall angle of the overprint

I have not seen any full forgeries as the base stamps are relatively easy to find.

Kull made large quatities of these fakes.

Fakes

This is a very crude fake

The wings have little curvature

The openings between the feather groups is too large

The feathers are too close together

The openings in the center are too small

The overprint angle is wrong

This is a common modern forgery

The gaps between feather groups are too large

The central openings are different

The last bottom feather is too inclined

Another fake with many of the previous faults

In particular the feathers are too wide particularly in the 50 value

30c Fakes

The used 30c is rare and an excellent copy will fetch over $1000

Here the forgery on the left is compared to a certified genuine right.

The feathers are not curved enough

The feathers are too close together

The central openings are wrong

The last right feather is little more than a blob.