Question About Scott Catalog & Honduras 1898 6c

The Scott Catalog lists a "dull rose" variant (error) for the Honduras 1898 6c (#106b), but it does not give a price. Does that mean the price is the same as the non-error?

JessEm

Probably means that there is no evidence of legitimate sale over a PO counter, so it never properly entered into any kind of circulation. Doesn't mean the price would be the same. My catalgue contains a "beware of forgeries" note below this issue!

Geoff

Thanks Geoff.

My thoughts on forgeries as I'm going through this album... I kind of chuckle when I see those notes because this album hasn't been opened since c1935.

Not that forgeries didn't exist back then, but I'm sure they were not nearly as prevalent as today. So I kind of laugh - because I feel it's pretty unlikely that I would run into one in this book...

But I'm pretty sure my ignorance is probably showing in this post.


As for which version I have, I guess I would need something to compare mine to. But it looks quite "dull".

The old masters of yesteryear were prolific about forgeries and of the highest caliber. The chances of running into fakes and forgeries in old albums is extremely high.

Just like art forgeries stamp forgeries began shortly after the first "stamp" in 1840. Some of the great ones are Friedl,Spiro brothers,de Thuin,Blum,Fournier,Sperati and even Scott of Scott fame. The old,old days were the masters of forging. Even US currency was hand drawn by forgers to near perfection.

whut redwoodrandy said -- it's precisely in old albums that one is most likely to find forgeries, well, perhaps that's a bit harsh. But old albums are at least as full of them as new albums will be.

Well that answers that! lol ... I guess the only other thing I have going for me on that note is, it does not appear the owner put out any significant kind of money for anything... Maybe a nice X-mas present here and there, but that's about it... The rest of the value I'm finding is items that were probably overlooked, such as perf variations, nice cancels, etc. Aside from that, it's mainly just general appreciation of items that were probably only moderately scarce back then... Point being, I don't see the person spending the money a forger would've probably required.

So this raises another question for me. How do they establish that such an animal even exists?

Maybe my art reference has confused you. The stamps that were forged were not necessarily expensive. Some were, but most were produced to supply the masses with "cheap" stamps to plug holes in their albums. Many stamps are just not readily available so forgers supplied the market. Many stamps today, even shown in the catalogues, are forgeries/fakes. More forgeries exist than legit stamps in certains areas. You would be amazed,shocked at the forgeries that are accepted today as there are just very few "real" ones around. You want to fill a space you accept the forgery/fake in many cases.

Thanks redwoodrandy. This is thoroughly edcuational.

There are numerous web sites showing fakes/forgeries vs the real deal. Collecting and studying f/f is a big part of stamp collecting. One of our members here, Floortrader, is very big in collecting/researching fakes and looking up his posts and pictures and analysis is an education.

1898 Honduras 103 1c brown "Railroad Train"

Here is an example of the lithographed issue in which you have questions JessEm.

The Scott catalogue does list an "error" color of dull rose for the 6c red violet denomination. No CV is given for the error, which can mean that there is not enough good information to give a firm CV price.

As mentioned by others, Scott does give a warning about "excellent counterfeits" existing for this issue.

Well, after the 'Hong Kong Incident' I've all but given up on trying to compare colors from scans, but, take my word for it, this is far from violet, red, red violet, or any other combination therein. Dull actually describes it quite well.

One thing that doesn't jive. From what I gather, the dull rose was never circulated? Yet this is canceled.

Counterfeits used on the mail and cancelled. Fake cancels also applied in the many instances when a used stamp is valued higher than a unused stamp. When I am looking at stamps if used is higher value than unused assume the cancel is suspect until proven otherwise. If the stamp has an overprint assume the worst. If the stamp is an imperf or a coil don't even get me started. The alteration of stamp color can be done in numerous ways. There are many threads about all of these subjects on this forum. Use the "search" function at the top between ebay sales and FAQ.

http://www.paperheritage.co.uk/arti...ras1898.html this is a excellent site for that stamp.

Got it. The assumption should be that it's counterfeit or the cancel is fake, or both. At least until proven otherwise.

Trader, I couldn't have asked for a better link. Thanks for coming to the rescue with that.

So I studied that page and this stamp does pass muster on the different forgeries. At this point, I'm thinking I should have it looked at. Do you think I should try contacting the guy on that site? If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

Thank you.