Hi,
Judging the authenticity of Cherry Blossom stamps do indeed requires deep knowledge of both genuine and forged stamps, thus far beyond my knowledge... However I can at least mention that this is not a "evident" forgery because;
- It has no inscriptions such as "Mo-Zou" (imitation) and "San-Ko" (reference material), which could be often found in forgeries (one may call them "honest" forgery :-) ).
- It has "secret marks", i.e.
1) the difference of the shape of upper-right "dot" of Kanji "Sen" in the right & left value inscription; the left one has only one stroke (resembling ' ), the right has two strikes (something like a small "z").
2) the difference in the positioning of cherry blossom flower design in four corners; only the upper-left flower is not tilted, whereas the rest are somewhat tilted.
- The center design with the leaf has no clear characteristics often found in forgeries.
Thus the final action for judgement is to 1) verify the width of the imprinted part matches the genuine size, and 2) identify the matching genuine stamp using the sheet photograph of this stamp, which could be found in the classical reference "The Postage Stamps of Japan and Dependencies" by T. Woodward, shown as an example of such sheet photo.
Happy collecting !
Hironobu
Posted 07/09/2017 5:38 pm
