Mafia - Is This Odd Version A Fake?

I have been looking for an affordable Mafia Island overprint. They all seem to be outside my price range, and then I came across this..
it looks extremely suspicious to me, as Mafia Island stamps should be either overprints on German issues for East Africa, or Indian IEFs, not on GEA overprinted East Africa and Uganda Protectorate stamps.
What I understand is that the ovewrprint dyes were destroyed in 1916, when Mafia Island was occuppied by the British, and would there be any point overprinting a GEA stamp, with Mafia Island.
Can anyone throw any light on it? Is this just a clumsy fake?

Under Tanganyika, Gibbons says 'Examples of Nos. 45/55 [the 3 Cent being SG 47] can also be found handstamped with Type M 5 [the Mafia overprint], but these were not issued.'

So this would appear to be a genuine overprint, but never actually issued. Not sure if that qualiifies the stamp as a representative of the Mafia Island issues.

This must be in a recent volume of Gibbons, as I haven't got a modern one. I'm working with an old 1965 volume, in which I can't find this stamp under Tanganyika.

As I'm seeking to build a framework of the world's stamp issues - just each historical location rather than every stamp - this qualifies for me. I'd include unofficial or unused stamps as long as they were printed in or for the country in question, or its people - so I'd count rebel productions, for example, which SG mostly doesn't. What I wouldn't count are out and out fakes.

So thanks very much for that.
I'll still try and find an original Mafia Island issue, though, as it's not a perfect example.

The quote from Gibbons is from the 2013 Part 1. I believe the note first appeared in the 2004 volume.

It looks as if the handstamp was the original, although showing obvious signs of wear.

That's an interesting observation.
Am I to take it then - I'll have to go and look at a more up-to-date SG catalogue in a library tomorrow - that the G.E.A overprint,( the British Occupation of German East Africa,) was applied onto one already handstamped for Mafia Island?




As I understand it, there was an intervening N.F stamp for the Nyassa-Rhodesia forces in conquered German East Africa (1916)between the original Mafia island Handstampings, (1915-16) on Indian issues, and before the G.E.A occupation stamps appeared on the East Africa and Uganda Protectorates stamps in 1917.
That kind of makes me wonder about the point where and when the two stampings would have come together. Could the handstamp of Mafia Island age quicker than the G.E.A ? It surely couldn't have time to have "aged" between being applied and getting the second overstamp?
Why should it have been handstamped first, and have G.E.A put on top?

The only reason I can think of is if there was a supply of Kenya stamps arrived on Mafia Island, and so got overprinted with both, not necessarily at the same time.

It may seem a bit academic, but it does relate to where and when and how this stamp came into being, and its relevance as a Mafia Island issue.

I'm afraid I think the most likely explanation for the Mafia handstamp on the GEA overprints would be that the handstamp remained in someone's desk drawer after the GEA stamps had been issued, and that it was applied by favour to the GEA stamps, to create a philatelic novelty.