Indochina/China French Offices: 2 Fr Olive ??

I recently acquired a lot with a.o. this stamp 2 Fr olive on yellow:



The same lot also contains this variety with overprint for French post offices in China:



The 2Fr is supposed to be violet on yellow, not olive on yellow.
I added a 2 Fr violet in above image, for reference.

The Chinese value overprint for image 1 and 2 also looks very coarse.
Are these counterfeits? The perforation and size of the stamp are identical to the 'real' ones I already have for Indochina, and I don't see remarkable deviations in the stamp and illustration, other than the color.

Anyone seen this before?

Thanks!

What is "a.o" ?

Among others. Or "inter alia" as a man of your distinction would say.

Thank you Geoff.

Opinion: the Overprints look decidedly dodgy, I would consider them forgeries.
I have litttle experience with Indo China, most of my references indicates "Brown on Orange"
In my "Light and Chemical Damage" folder, I have modern Australian stamps, evidenced Brown becoming Green / Olive, nothing on older stamps.

I agree with above. The Chinese characters overprint is not recognizable. They are probably forgeries.

It would be nice a pic of the backsides.There should be some relief in the back were CANTON is struck.They could be real but bogus overprinted
or clandestine overprints.Many of these overprints were made to order
for collectors in those days using the original dies.These stamps are
only of value on localy used covers & on non registered covers by preference.

Thanks all, I agree the overprints are likely forgeries.

I am still puzzled by the 2 Fr GREEN stamps, which should be VIOLET.
I don't think this is washed out or bleached color, since I have 3 of them, and the color is identical to the 1 Fr olive green stamps I own.

Indeed strange, check perforation guage for counterfeit.
Only stamp I have seen go BROWN (Scott's colour as listed) to Green
is Yugoslavia 1935 king Peter.

I still don't think you can conclude that the stamps / overprints are fake.
Search google (if you know French): "timbres Grasset surchargees Canton"
I found a site (see the address at the top) where the 2Fr stamp also appears in green (I didn't read too carefully to know if it is the same violet on yelow 2Fr stamp) but there are other sites with information very good.



I also have a Grasset stamp with a variety of overprint (the distance between 0 and 5 is 2mm instead of 1.5mm)
I could not identify if the overprint is genuine or forged

genuine 2mm seperation exists.

Thanks Cupram.

Hmm...unable to post link, shall try again
A new one on me, no link
but the pdf can be downloaded here

I am sorry wilfredb/the 2 FR green is this stamp Canton overprinted:



Thank you perf12 for your opinion '
This is very good news because the value is high for this variety (chiffres espaces)
At the overprint typo. next to the embossed mark on the back of the stamp, the ink is oriented to the edge where a higher concentration appears.
What puzzles me is the lighter shade at the top of the numbers.

It could be a forgery.Compare with auction specimen.
https://siegelauctions.com/lots.php...1&page_no=18

???? different shade of ink and the overprint is thicker.Possible double-impression or....forgerie.I don't know.
I have a name of expert...Scheler??

I struggle with color, especially in scans, but I don't see any violet on yellow in the OP. Nevertheless, the stamps in question certainly don't appear violet or anything near to violet.

My copy of Michel lists the 2F only as "lila auf orange," which doesn't seem to help much. But Michel does confirm that the overprinted Grasset of 1912 do exist with a 2mm distance between 0 and 5.

The type Grasset of Indochina had the same settings as Senegal (Nov.1 1912).
https://www.francephilatelie.com/im...arge1912.pdf