Upper Silesia - Fake Chis Overprints On Ebay?

These official stamps of Upper Silesia just sold for for $82.00 on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261580048041



The overprint looks suspicious and to top it all, the 80pf has a Bremen cancel that is dated 1913. Bremen was not in Upper Silesia and the stamps were issued in 1920.

I sent a polite note to the seller (before the sale ended) stating my suspicions, and did not receive a reply.

It is amazing what people bid on, without a little research!

Well, the people bidding it up were not exactly neophytes, judging from number of feedbacks.

Here is another Upper Silesia CIHS overprint from another group of six that sold for about $80.



Another impossible city (Leipzig) and impossible date, 1916.

It appears to be a modern inkjet application.

I have to agree about the overprints shown here as being poor fakes . But need to state that all CIHS overprints are questionable because of what happen in the early 60's . There was a well respected expert in Germany by the name of Dr. M.Haertel on these overprints . I guess he got bored and started to do his own overprints and signing them ,these overprints are hard to identify from the real ones .Without a cert. they should be considered as fakes until proven otherwise.

Thanks for that information floortrader. Here is an image I have; I wonder if it is genuine. I do not own the stamp, but the cancel and date seem OK.The town appears to be Oppeln, which was in Upper Silesia.

Like floortrader mentioned, consider these forgeries unless with a BPP certificate.

For reference, here is a genuine certified by Gruber/BPP:

The Oppelner Notausgabe (Oppeln Emergency Issue) were the first stamps issued 14-19 Feb 1920 by the Iner-allied Commission (French - Commission Interalliée de Haute-Silésie) for the plebiscite in Upper Silesia.
24 German stamps were overprinted in blue with a rubber handstamp, 5 values were also overprinted in red, numbers overprinted range between 60 & 2200 of each value(Fischer).

The majority of stamps found for sale use a second type of handstamp which Michel lists as "privater Nachdruck (Falschung)" which sort of translates as "private after print (reprint)or forgery". Here is a table of differences I've put together using info from Michel, Fischer & the great Tome for Upper Silesia "Handbuch vom Abstimmungsgebiet Oberschlesien 1920/22"



The second, Type 2, overprints are often "proofed" by M. Haertel, or Dr. Muller & definitely need reproofing. Apparently some of Haertel's items are OK as they have been given certificates by Gunnar Gruber, a renowned expertiser in this field. Cancellations on this second type are either backdated genuine or outright forgeries.

Here's my collection, all "Gepruft M Haertel".
The problem is that the 2pf light grey, 3Mk & 5Mk were never overprinted....

YEA POLSKA-----thanks for that more detail information ,I download your postings as reference information .....thanks again .

For the used forgeries, would not the overprints have been placed over the postmarks?

Hi all, especially to BeeSue for starting this. I just need to say what a wonderful thread this is. The presentation of the stamps is nicely done and the information, invaluable to members who may be just starting out collecting this series.

And, YeaPolska, what a wonderful collection you have! I love and appreciate the design, the colors, artistic appeal, everything!

Thank you all!

By the way, I know that at least one stamp in this series, most likely without the Bremen cancel, is in with the other 600 German stamps in the upcoming Foreign Stamp Giveaway!

Thanks to YeaPolskas information, this 2pf Upper Silesia CIHS appears to be a type 2. It sold on ebay recently for $26. The 2009 Scott value is $1.25. Yikes.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/381134641846

It also looks like the overprint was applied right over the cancellation which is sometimes a way of telling if the overprint is fake.

Well the interesting part is the cancel is dated February 15, 1920. If genuine it would be "in period" use. It would be interesting to examine the stamp and see which was actually applied first - the cancel or the overprint.