Russia 1919 Denikin

General Anton Denikin 1917

On January 8, 1919, the troops of the High Command of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia were created and led by General A. Denikin The government of General Denikin created a postal department, which was faced with the lack of stamps 
It was decided, approved by the government, to print new stamps. 
The order for printing was given to the created "Expedition of Procurement of Valuable Forms of the Great Don Army" in Novocherkassk.
Eleven imperf stamps with the image of St. George the Victorious and the inscription "United Russia" were printed on plain gray paper with coarse glue applied by hand. 
Denominations in kopecks were made in printed sheets of 400 pieces, consisting of 16 25-stamp blocks, which were cut for sale into 4100 stamp sheets (2 × 2 × 25). The next issue was printed with 500 stamp sheets cut into 5100 stamp strips (4x1x25). A 120-stamp printed sheet of ruble denomination consisted of four 30-stamp (5 × 6) sheets.
Ruble denominations of 3, 5 and 10 rubles were later issued perforated 11.5 in 60-stamp blocks (10 × 6).

Remaining stocks were destroyed by the advancing Red Army.

Genuine Issues

The first 5 issues (5K - 70K) have no information on possible forgeries so we will concentrate on the more common 6 higher values of the 1919 issue.

Imperforate Set

Perforated 11.5 set

Essays?

This stamp and several identical ones in various colors and denominations are said to be original essays.

Unissued set?

This set was apparently prepared but not used, I cannot confirm this.

Note that new higher values have been added. The side numerals have been replaced with flower designs and the value numerals are different.

Forgeries

The forgeries are well made and difficult to distinguish.

One key point may be St George's lance. On the genuine stamps, it touches the edge of the coloured oval and on the forgery it doesn't. 

Genuine left, forgery right

This may not always be foolproof given inking variations and displaced centers which are common.

As it turns out, each forgery has some flaw that is consistent with the value.

On the following the flaws have been circled.

The flaws are uneven, missing lines or those that extend outside the frame ot that the letter is different.

Forgeries are also a slightly different size but this may be difficult to measure.

The top row is the genuine size, the forgery on the lower row.