Ecuador 1865 - The Pearl Mystery

While doing some research on classic forgeries & in particular the 1865 UN REAL I noted that there seemed to be some discrepancies.

This one is a bad, easy to spot forgery on sale by a dealer

R. B. Earee (Weeds) described the genuine stamp as having 77 pearls.

Roberto Levi , A.P.S., Philatelic Editor (Rolecas), El Telegrafo, published his article entitled "Ecuador The First Stamps 1865-1872 in The American Philatelist, Volume 73, No. 8, May, 1960 and noted the stamp had 77 pearls

Seranne mentions "Originaux 17 rayons, 78 perles (pearls)"

In 1982 when Banco Central del Ecuador published their 97 page extensive article entitled "La Primera Emision de Sellos Postales del Ecuador", they stated there were 78 pearls

Can anyone shed light on this. Has the forgery become the genuine one just because there are so many of them?

Hi nl1947

I always go by Banco Central's "La Primera Emision de Sellos Postales del Ecuador". I used to know a dealer in Quito, Ecuador who helped with the book and I trust his observation. I think he passed away so I cannot ask him.

I find the discrepancies in the number of pearls very interesting. I would e-mail the Guayaquil Philatelic Society and ask their opinion. It would be interesting to see what they have to say.

Jerry B

Thank You jbcev80
I have sent them a note.
Their website has a lot of detail & available downloads.
Unfortunately some pertinent ones were only accessible to members.
They listed an example of the UN Real & it shows 78 pearls


This one shows a key feature of the original which is the one offset pearl mid-right.

Here is what I got ,it may need updating ,from my forgery collection .

Just to add a bit of data to the discussion..

I checked Earee and Serrane and they do state 77 pearls and 78 pearls respectively for the 1r genuine. Puzzling.

Earee discusses a forgery with 108 pearls, and Serrane has one with "greater than a 100 pearls".

Serrane also discusses a forgery with 75 pearls- probably the one that floortrader illustrates.

Sometimes its hard to understand ,what I am saying . Here is a visual of the curved left side sun rays coming from the sun on the 1/2 real .

The 75 pearl stamps are apparently Fournier forgeries.

Got an answer from

Greetings. Rodrigo Paez
(Member of Asociacion Filatelica Ecuatoriana, Real Academia Hispanica de Filatelia and Academia Nacional de Historia, Quito, Ecuador)

78 Pearls on the UN REAL

Nicely done!

It is amazing to think about the depths to which stamps were studied 100 years ago, when collectors were sending letters across the oceans to assemble this information. It might have taken two months to get that question answered.

And then you think of all the journals to go by the wayside over the decades, never to be digitized, and all of the information that was lost with them.

Hi nl1947

Great job! It makes one wonder where the information is coming from. I am assuming the discrepancies are due to new information being found and older, erroneous information, not being updated.

Do you have a copy of Banco Central's book? I got mine in Quito when we visited my sister-in-law. She also bought me the Banco Central's album. Honestly, it is too nice to put stamps into it. I use it as a reference.

Jerry B

For your consideration,

The Fournier forgeries shown here are from the 'original' Fournier album: http://stampforgeries.com/forged-st...oat-of-arms/

If he indeed was the forger I don't know. There are several examples where he got his hand on for example plates from Spiro or sold stock made by other of his 'colleagues'.