Samoa Express

Anybody know what this is? I've done some reading on these, and believe I have ruled out either a Fournier forgery or the "clubfoot" forgery. Also, I don't see a "dot" under the M suggesting thats it's not a reprint.

What am I missing? Thoughts?

Any help would be appreciated,
Chris

Chris: the Scott Classic catalog notes that this is an unissued stamp, Scott #2, printed in 1882. The unissued status is confirmed by the "Serrane Guide: Stamp Forgeries of the World to 1926," printed by the APS. The 2p is listed by Scott as only being Type IV, which means it should have the spot of color on the center line under the letter 'M' of Samoa. Serrane suggests that a magnifying glass may be needed to see the spot on some stamps. Scott lists the perf of the Type IV stamps as 11 3/4; Serrane as 12.

It's hard to tell from the scan, but there does seem to be a very slight color "bulge" below the 'M' along the line. My best guess, pending your checking of the perfs, is that you have Scott #2. If not 11 3/4 / 12 perfs, you may then have some sort of reprint not mentioned in either of my references. I think there is a specialist society for British Oceania. You might check on the APS web site for a listing of their affiliate organizations. Or maybe someone else will weigh in on this thread. Good luck.

Climber Steve,

Thanks for your comments. I looked under the M with a very high power magnifying lens and didn't see any hint of a spot.

Given the rough perts, I'm not sure I could tell the difference between 11 3/4 and 12.

Thanks,
Chris

A suggestion: keijo (at scb) has developed a digital tool for measuring the perfs, probably this tool will do the job for you?? His tool did magic for an unknown perforation on a Spannish stamp.

Thanks Jon, I will look into that. But, I think Jim (JkjBlue) has convinced me that it is a reprint and you can't see the dot under the M because the stamp is so faded. Who knows?

Thread bumped...

What do you do when you find reprints/forgeries in your collection? Collect them!

Here's a page I put together for my Samoa Express reprints/forgeries (with the help of Jim and his blog BigBlue 1840-1940).

Very nice!

It makes sense to have a reprint and forgery page because supposedly ~90% of the Samoa Express stamps are reprints, ~9% are forgeries, and only ~1% are genuine.

Well done Chris!