Plain Looking High Cv Natal Stamp

I have come across rare and expensive plain looking stamps like the perot provisionals and Hawaiian missionaries with designs that still show clearly on the paper, but this Natal stamp has to take the cake. The embossing on this 6 pence 1857 classic has almost faded to nothing with the design hardly visible, leaving only the green paper, some visible cancellation and an expertising certificate saying this stamp is genuine.
Catalogue value for this stamp is $2000 and hipstamp is putting this on sale at 3/4 of catalogue value. An interesting stamp nevertheless even though I won't buy it.

https://www.hipstamp.com/listing/na...000/19018199

These stamps were blind embossed (ie there was no ink applied to the design), on coloured paper. The colour of the paper looks reasonable to me, so the stamp has not faded (or at least not badly), however when looking at the condition the strength of the embossing is an important consideration, and this one looks pretty flat.

Those sold by Cherrystone auction have better embossings.

https://www.cherrystoneauctions.com...WEALTH+NATAL

There are reprints and forgeries of this issue, and as always good examples are a much higher price than average or poor ones. For something of this value I'd only buy it with a certificate.

Not surprised with forgeries for this issue. It must be incredibly hard to tell a genuine from a fake unless the paper and dye used on the original is unique only to stamps of that issue.

Pre 1910 South Africa is a tough area to collect. I have a lot of admiration for the experts in this field. It must've taken many years to learn to avoid all of the pitfalls.

It's rubbish. See below what a Genuine 1857 6p should look like.
https://www.cherrystoneauctions.com...WEALTH+NATAL

The Cherrystone ones are certainly a lot more appealing. Every copy sold by Hipstamp seems to have the embossing flattened out.

it's a mediocre reprint…

http://www.janssenstamps.com/site/s...-natal.shtml

The texture of those sold by Cherrystone appears rougher compared to the ones by hipstamp and jenssen.

Came across this sale on the stampauction network site. An unused piece without any impression which cannot be verified as genuine went under the hammer for $220.

(duplicate)