Cyprus Half Penny Overprint

Hello all,

I came across this Cyprus stamp that has the smallest of the half penny overprint. All looks good but the plate number is 194 (kind of hard to see in the photo but it is 194). I checked for the listing in Stanley Gibbons and Scott, neither of which shows an overprint for plate 194. Am I to assume that this is a forgery or treasure.

Doesn't look real ,unless someone left it in a hot water bath too long .

This has the typical look of a fake of this; the genuine has very dark and solid overprints. It might be hard to tell here, but if the overprint is clearly over the cancel, it's forged. In the end, the plate numbers used are known and have been known for years. Further, the numeral cancel is not from Cyprus -- those all start with 9, 0 or D. A UK cancel on a Cyprus stamp is possible but is only remotely possible for places that are not major ports..

Thanks for your help all.

Thanks perf12. Excellent reading.