Ron
The attached may be of some help about distinguishing the two Disselboom types(it's from a display I have which covers some elements of South African Republic (ZAR) postal history).
There are surprisingly few forgeries of ZAR stamps part from the £5 (both overprinted V.R.I. and in the original issue), and errors in the V.R.I. overprints. Assume that all of these you see are forgeries unless they're recently expertised.
Reprints are rife, and it's usually best to assume that any mint stamps you have are reprints. It's technically possible to tell the difference between the reprints and original stamps by looking at the perforations. Those on the originals
tend to be a rougher and more irregular than on the reprints, and very regular middle-of-the-road perf. 12 1/2 on the reprints (and re-reprints...!), but I've found that it's not always the case. I tend to collect postally used stamps so as long as I have a clear date on the CDS then I'm sure about the stamp being from the original printing.
The colours on the Vurtheim original printings tend to be a bit brighter than on the reprints but this usually only becomes apparent when you compare very fine condition mint examples. You'll see the difference between the perforations too, if you do this. There isn't any appreciable difference in colour (for my jaded eyesight at least) between the originals and the reprints/re-reprints of the Disselboom issues.
Hope this helps a bit!
Posted 03/09/2016 6:59 pm
