Trinidad - The Imperforates

Painted by water color artist, Edward Henry Corbould

Engraver, Charles Henry Jeens

Printer Perkins Bacon, Recess Printed

Sheet size 110 (11 x 10) and

240 (10x24) for 1s sheets in 1859

Genuine stamps

1851 1d SG 3

1851 1d SG 8

1859 6d SG 72

Items to note

Position of the foot relative to the letter below

Shape and height of spear point

5 pointed star on cap (rarely visible on forgeries)

Shape of side ornaments

White dot in corner elements

Shape and size of letters

Provisional Issues

Demand from shortage of stamps over the period 1852 – 1860

Produced by local French descendent, Charles Petit from a stone plate

Sheet of 54 (9x6)

Imperforate 1d value only

1853 First printing

1855 2nd printing

1856 3rd printing

1858 4th printing

1860 5th printing

The printing degraded noticeably with each issue

These are not noted in most catalogs and can be expensive for good quality ones

They are often listed as "forgeries"

SG13 1st Issue 1853

SG15 2nd Issue 1855

SG16 3rd Issue 1856

SG18 4th Issue 1858

SG20 5th Issue 1860

Forgeries

These were forged by several known forgers and by many unknown. This is but a sampling of the most comment types found.

Panelli/Oneglia Forgeries

They both worked together at some point so these is no solid opinion as to who made them but here is an interesting point.

First the best known forgeries..

These are the ones normally attributed to Oneglia and sold by Panelli

However I came across the following sold by Fournier who may have obtained them from either of them.

Same type of background but straight chains not zigzag pattern

Hat is tilted

Shading in dress is different

Unknown forger

These are very common and appear the most often in auction sales.

These may be from Spiro.

The head is too tilted

No 5 point star on the cap

The spear tip is not wide or high enough

The foot is too high above the N

The above letters are too low

The other features are the same as the previous.

Torres forgeries

These match his 1876 catalog image shown in the first image on the left.

This set was part of the Fournier Geneva Collection

Primitive forgeries

Unknown

A reasonable forgery

The side ornaments are faulty

No white ring around the head 

Spear tip is too small

Modern Forgery

Paper is just too new and no gum