For France collectors, at least on a simplified basis, the 1 franc vermilion is the
key stamp to completing a collection.
Lot 70 from the La Postale sale, October 2017Featuring Ceres, the God of agriculture, the stamp was engraved by Jean Jacques Barre and was issued, along with the 20 centime black, on New Year's Day 1849. These stamps were surface printed by M. Hulot under contract with the French government.
According to Scott, there are three main shades, including the famous "Vervelle". The cheapest was catalogued in 2014 at $15,500. There were 509,700 stamps printed between December 30, 1848 and January 7, 1849.
The ink was produced from mineral vermilion or cinnabar. It contained mercury sulphide which attacked the copper printing plates.
With the upcoming release of the 40 centime orange (issued February 3, 1850), to avoid confusion, it was decided to replace the 1F vermilion with the 1F carmine. The vermilion was withdrawn on December 1, 1849 and the carmine released the same day. There were 122,398 copies of the 1F vermilion destroyed in July 1851.
So, how to fill that annoying gap in the collection?
After a lot of research, I purchased the item below:
It's a forgery of course, but it's a very good one. The giveaway is the cancellation, which didn't come into use until 1852. This makes the stamp at the top of this post suspicious to me (see
http://marcophilie.org/grille-de-gr...ans-fin.html and
http://marcophilie.org/mqp-de-janvi...ovinceb.html). I've seen this cancellation on an 1850 10 centime bistre tete-beche forgery also.
The other clear indication is that there is only one known used tete-beche of the 1F vermilion, in a strip of three.
In my research, I found my example the subject of a post on a French site
http://timbres-de-france.clicforum....e-ou-pas.htm. I wrote to the administrator of the site (in French, don't you love online translators
) but did not receive a reply.
I personally feel that I've bought a pre 1953 Sperati, as there is no handstamp on the reverse. Either that or it's a modern production made to look old but I'm not so sure. There is nothing about it that says "I'm a modern production". I'm positive it's not a Spiro or a Fournier. I have a few of the first Ceres stamps and the paper of my forgery has the same characteristics of the other stamps I have, hence my leaning towards a Sperati.
From a monetary stance, I hope I'm right as a normal Sperati pair sold late last month for 700 euros which is considerably more than I paid for my pair. In the same sale, a genuine single on piece sold for 8411 euros but another genuine single was passed in at 5500 euros (see
https://stampauctionnetwork.com/ru/ru5495.cfm#6).
Anyway, it was certainly an adventure trying to find a satisfactory way to fill a gap where I could never afford the genuine article!
Bobby DLR
Posted 02/06/2018 6:35 pm
There's a hint of another to the right of it. I looked at all the scans I have and none have this circle. I'm starting to think mine couldn't be a Sperati, he was just too good and there's no circles on any of the scans I have of his work. The investigation continues!
. The first S in POSTES is just one indication.
