Also, an easy way to tell on any stamps of this era is to count the number of front petals in the chrysanthemum. If there's anything other than 16 petals, then it's a forgery.
Having 16 petals doesn't mean that it's genuine, but you can easily rule out a stamp as a forgery if it doesn't have 16 petals.
(I've counted this one several times, and unless I'm doing something stupid consistently (and that's always a possibility!), there are 15 petals on this stamp.)
Also, it is important to note what Hy-Brasil mentioned. These first stamps were hand-engraved, so, even among the genuine ones, there are small differences from one stamp to another. To me, even the genuine ones can look a little "amateurish" at times.
The hand-engraved stamps for Japan were Scott 1-8 (the Dragons) and Scott 9-54A (the Cherry Blossoms). With these, because they were so highly forged, I think it's best to always assume the stamp is a forgery, and then work to prove that it's genuine, rather than the other way around.
Here's bit of information from the Int'l Society for Japanese Philately:
http://www.isjp.org/ForgeryGroup
Posted 05/01/2018 2:13 pm
