Is This Cigarette Label Considered A Counterfeit, A Facsimile, Or Something Else?

I was under the impression* that a manufacturer couldn't include "Internal Revenue" and/or "I. R." on their facsimile labels.

A real label is next to it.

What do you think?

Jim





* No pun intended.

Looks kinda like a poor mimeograph. No experience with cigarette labels.

i think it could be a counterfeit. it could also have been used as a movie prop but I do not think so.

The "R" is probably purposely broken to avoid the problem. So I would lean toward "facsimile", though if was used on fake branded cigarettes, that would make it a forgery. If you have seen recent patent medicines from Mexico, some will still have seals that look a lot like old US medicine stamps. I suppose it provides continuity and recognition in selling a product.

Such a close reproduction of a contemporary revenue stamp was clearly illegal. Might it have been done much later?

Original stamp + 30 seconds of digital image manipulation. Laser printer and bingo.
Don

Possibly something out of an old cigarette machine. The "packs" for show were just a wooden block with a package wrapper and a facsimile stamp on it.

It reminds me of some of the curd forgeries, and wood cuts I've seen before in other issues. Attached are a couple.
Left CSA #2 forgery and right is a #209 forgery.




What I found fascinating is WHY someone would make this...

The 19th century forgeries are pretty easy to explain. Collecting at that time was geared to filling every space. Since even then there were a fair number of stamps that were rare, people created forgeries. Not to necessarily to defraud anyone, it was clear what they were, but just so that collectors could fill that space in an album. Obviously since the book "Forged Stamps: How to Detect Them" was issued in 1863 there were some very good forgeries out there by then as well.

The change from "IR" to "IQ" at upper right seems to be pretty darned deliberate to me... I would think facsimile rather than counterfeit.

It's not IQ, just a poor IR.

I remember something looking like this on packages of candy cigarettes when I was a kid.

Eric

Brings a whole new meaning to "original gum" then.

Lol.

Jim