Charkhari State Forgeries

This forgery of the Charkhari State handstamped 1 Anna of 1921



just keeps on reappearing on ebay, like something out of a bad horror film.

Here is the real thing:



All you really need to know to tell them apart immediately is that, whatever its other faults, the Charkhari State Post Office did at least know that POSTAGE was spelled with a G, not an S

TONY ----I am on the road right now ,but will give you a update and history of the fake .....

Hi Tony


This had indeed come up many times.

I have created a Charkhari State page on my site:
http://stampforgeries.com/forged-st...khari-state/
Hopefully more people will see this and not get burned.

Thanks for posting this.

These weren't the only forgeries of Charkhari: pound-for-pound, Charkhari must be the most forged of Indian States, I'm afraid.

The first issue, inscribed ANNAS on the high values, is scarce enough that one would only buy it with a reputable certificate anyway. Here is a genuine 2 Annas



The next issue, though, has been extensively forged. Most of the forgeries range from the mildly deceptive to the downright childish. Here are some examples of the forgeries:

A ¼ Anna:



A ½ Anna



A 1 Anna



and a 4 Anna



There are so many things wrong with these efforts, it's not easy to know where to start.

However, the two-ring cartwheel cancellations are one dead give-away. They didn't come into use until the late 1930s, and these stamps had been replaced 30 years earlier. Another give-away, and one that all the forgers (so far) have missed is that all the genuine types show a weakness in the top left frame:



(Incidentally, showing the type of postmark to be expected on these stamps)

These stamps were handstamped, so spacing is not necessarily a guide to genuineness. However, here is a (genuine) sheet of the ¼ Anna value:



Bear this in mind. If one of these 'stamps' looks machine-printed, like the 4 Anna above, it's probably a forgery.

TONY----Here are the forgeries from my collection . These forgeries were printed in 2001 to 2003 in the city of Hialea ,Florida by a very popular seller on ebay . He sold a few thousand .They can be searched on the internet as HIALEA FORGERIES . I maintain a large reference binder of his many different computer made fakes .

Thanks for the origin of those forgeries. I didn't know the Hialea forger had been active among the Indian States. The usual suspect here is the Ahmedabad Forger, though his creations tend to be even less sophisticated.

I should stress that I never knowingly buy forgeries: the examples I show have been picked up in mixed lots along with genuine copies, or (the one harrowing exception) bought in good faith, which turned out to be a forgery.

Next to be forged were the 1909 'crossed swords' types. Here, the simplest diagnostic tool is your perforation gauge. Some of the worst forgeries are perf 12



(I admit to having bought this, believing it was an unlisted error )

but the genuine stamps are perf 11



Once again, beware of the large cartwheel cancellations (typically dated 1942)



Forgeries, again!

The small skeleton swords types of 1912-17 have also been forged:



Forgery on the left; genuine on the right. The differences are more subtle, but all the lines and scripts appear more tentative - less assured - in the forgeries. And of course, once again, beware of the cartwheel CDSs.

Here are some examples of contemporary cancellations:



(This type is most often found cancelling stamps to order)



(Though, as you can see, ordinary CDSs were also used for CTO work later)

We've already dealt with the long type 1 Anna postal-fiscals of 1921. Exasperation with them turning up on ebay prompted me to start this thread. I'd simple remind the reader, here, that these were postal-fiscals: you can find them used fiscally, when they should be worth a fraction of the catalogue prices.

Forgeries of the imperf crossed swords types are rather good: the differences are rather subtle. In this case, though, they're rather too well done. Here is a forgery of the ½ Anna red-brown



and a genuine pair:



A common failing of the forgeries is that the framelines tend to be too thick and consistent. On the genuine types, they aren't. Paper and shade aren't very reliable guides, either. The laid and pelure papers are distinctive, but many of these printings were made during WWII, when it would have been difficult to maintain consistency, even if it had concerned the Charkhari printers

As used of this set are almost always scarcer than mint, look on any used with a particularly jaundiced eye. The cartwheel CDSs do date from this period



but smaller double and single ring CDSs are still more common:





(The 1 Pice blue perf x imperf is the only stamp of this series commoner used than mint.)

The 1931 Pictorial set and the 1939-40 surcharges don't seem to have attracted the attentions of the forgers, yet

I do hope this hasn't frightened you off Charkhari. It remains an intriguing little State, with a lot of scope for work outside the catalogues still

tonymacg very interesting presentation (probably one of the few cases where the forgeries look better than the real stamps LOL)! Thank you for posting it.

I can't really bring myself to call it "eye candy" but that is a great presentation.

Jenny2U, I greatly fear the Indian States have plenty of examples of the fakes being nicer-looking than the genuine.

This purported Jammu sheet



is much tidier than a real sheet



Even the forgeries of my avatar (is nothing sacred?) from Bhor State



are neater than the real thing



And Cjd, if that doesn't delight your eye ... you'll have to borrow my glasses!

Rose colored?



I have some, thanks.

And you still resist?

Not always successfully, as you know...

I am relieved!

Bump!! Going through grandpa's stamps and came across this from Charkhari. From trying to read online it seems like the one has been forged over the years many times over. How can one tell with certainty?