Hong Kong: eBay high value forged postmarks
Jul 24, 2017 0:32:51 GMT
tomiseksj, Ryan, and 3 more like this
Post by Anping on Jul 24, 2017 0:32:51 GMT
I've just spotted two Hong Kong eBay items from the same UK based seller, both having forged postmarks. The problem is, these are attracting substantial bids already and there's six days to go.
One of these postmarks resembles another eBay item I spotted about three years ago. It's hard to tell if these come from the same stable because of the difficulty analysing the postmarks.
The one with the potential to hit 'silly money', is what is known as a Shanghai Sunburst; a multi ray radial postmark. This particular postmark is shrouded in a bit of mystery, as nothing regarding it's use has ever been documented, other than dates and port of usage.
The problem with this latest eBay offering, is the stamp upon which this 'sunburst' has been applied; the 1900 2 cent dull green. This particular postmark type was last used in 1866. It is extremely convincing; so much so I am beginning to wonder if a genuine hand-stamp has been obtained; but I have not checked in detail:
Here is the other example I found three years ago. This time a partial strike was applied to a pair of 4 cents, again from the same 1900 issue, but with a fine Amoy 1902 postmark. The two postmarks are in fact mutually exclusive:
By some coincidence, the same postage stamp (1900 2 cent) in a separate eBay item, has a forged S2 (Swatow) killer postmark. Killer postmarks were withdrawn (by Post Office directive) around 1885. This particular example, apart from being out of date by about 15 years, is suspect because of the near perfect condition of the killer bars and characters. Aside from their condition, the horizontal bars are not parallel and are somewhat distorted:
Although the S2 is at the moment fairly low price wise, it is likely to rise considerably, closer to 'end-time', as this is one of the more scarce Treaty Port postmarks. The 'Sunburst', on the other hand, which is very scarce, stands at £23 already and will I'm pretty sure easily exceed £100.
What this illustrates to me is the speculative nature of some bidders (I'm being polite here). In reality, this shows the lack of research some collectors invest when bidding on potentially high value scarce material.
One of these postmarks resembles another eBay item I spotted about three years ago. It's hard to tell if these come from the same stable because of the difficulty analysing the postmarks.
The one with the potential to hit 'silly money', is what is known as a Shanghai Sunburst; a multi ray radial postmark. This particular postmark is shrouded in a bit of mystery, as nothing regarding it's use has ever been documented, other than dates and port of usage.
The problem with this latest eBay offering, is the stamp upon which this 'sunburst' has been applied; the 1900 2 cent dull green. This particular postmark type was last used in 1866. It is extremely convincing; so much so I am beginning to wonder if a genuine hand-stamp has been obtained; but I have not checked in detail:
Here is the other example I found three years ago. This time a partial strike was applied to a pair of 4 cents, again from the same 1900 issue, but with a fine Amoy 1902 postmark. The two postmarks are in fact mutually exclusive:
By some coincidence, the same postage stamp (1900 2 cent) in a separate eBay item, has a forged S2 (Swatow) killer postmark. Killer postmarks were withdrawn (by Post Office directive) around 1885. This particular example, apart from being out of date by about 15 years, is suspect because of the near perfect condition of the killer bars and characters. Aside from their condition, the horizontal bars are not parallel and are somewhat distorted:
Although the S2 is at the moment fairly low price wise, it is likely to rise considerably, closer to 'end-time', as this is one of the more scarce Treaty Port postmarks. The 'Sunburst', on the other hand, which is very scarce, stands at £23 already and will I'm pretty sure easily exceed £100.
What this illustrates to me is the speculative nature of some bidders (I'm being polite here). In reality, this shows the lack of research some collectors invest when bidding on potentially high value scarce material.
