Bahamas War Tax Overprint

I don't collect Bahamas (yet :-) but here's a single from my shoebox.



To prevent myself from doing something productive, I looked it up in Scott. Here's a sample image (A6) from the Catalogue:



Here are a few questions I hope you experts can answer for me...

1. Scott shows the overprint near the bottom of the stamp; there's nothing in the notes saying it could appear higher on the design. Is that normal? I expected all the overprints be in the same place?

2. On close examination, I believe the font is different -- seems like a red flag to me. In the catalog example, the word X in TAX obscures the right side of the "frame" -- not in my copy.

3. Is this a fake? And why would someone go to the trouble of faking a stamp worth only a few dollars?

Any Thoughts?
KirkS


P.S... Just for reference, there are only a few Bahamas War Tax stamps. Here's the complete section from Scott 2008.

Look at Scott #MR5. Don't be terribly concerned about the exactness of the positioning of overprints as a general rule because they can/will float.

The stamp you've shown is MR9 yellow paper or MR10 on white paper.
Stanley Gibbons lists them as Bahamas 108 (yel) & 110.
The postioning of "War Tax" seems correct. Not A fake.

I'm Sorry I was talking about image #2. Your 1st image is that the stamp you're refering too? The ovpt is higher then normal, that does not say it's not an error, SG cat. does not make note of this. The font does seem to match SG type 10, making it Bahamas 105 in SG or Scott MR5.

Thanks warrehouse.

I always proofread my posts, but then I still manage to leave out something :-)

Yes, I agree that my stamp is most likely the MR5 -- I used that for the filename of the image but forgot to include it in the text of my post. In the main listings, A6 is the image of the red & black 1 penny stamp -- the Queen's Steps. In the War Tax section, they shaded the 3p (yellow/black) to show the overprint. Based solely on denomination, mine would have to be MR5.

But that's where I got lost... I questioned the position and font of overprint. I've seen lots of other overprints and it seemed they were all the same font and position. So the shift threw me a bit.

Anyway, thanks for your help and insight.

Kirk S, You're Welcome!

A nice donation from Jubilee.

I am wondering if this stamp is showing a cracked plate?
comments?

Again, if I'd seen that, it would still live at my house! This is where your scanning comes into it's own. Seeing them scanned makes you look at detail.

An interesting vertical crack through the King's head.

To answer Kirks question, the position of the overprints varies enormously.

I'll send it back Jubilee,
it is not a dedicated collection item of mine,
and would be sad and lonely at my place.

Thanks for the clarification, at first I thought it to be
a "cleft skull" variety, but couldn't see it on the web
anywhere, and not related to south africa.
Not listed in Gibbons (as far as I am aware)

Thanks for your gifts by the way.