Origin Of Austria Michel 187 6 Heller Stamp Overprinted With Eagle (?)

Hi,

I have come across this stamp, which I cannot locate in catalogues. It's Austrian 6 Heller with emperors crown, overprinted with big, blackish eagle.



Could it be from Tirol? Those eagle overprints from Tirol were smaller and had blue tint.

Can anybody help me?

Adam

Hi.
Probably bogus overprint,applied over stamp cancellation.

Thanks! From this one reply I've learned tonnes. You are so right - it's obviously printed over the cancellation mark. I have not even think about the cancellation mark, as was so preoccupied with the overprint, hahaha!

Looks like something a Polish patriot would do .

These are "Tarnow II" local overprints. Austrian occupation of Poland (Tarnow). They were not official overprints but of local origin.
http://catalogue.klaseboer.com/vol2...polanlo1.htm
Postage due overprinted:Local issues 1918-1919 Austria occupied Poland - Tarnow II
https://www.stampspoland.nl/index.html

I might add that the eagle does not have a crown. Good point floortrader !

Thanks perf12 and floortrader. Sure, I was instinctly drawn to the eagle, which looked like taken straight from the Polish emblem. I must say that the smaller Tirol one looked similar.

It has Tarnów 1 cancel, with invisible date, very light. Under big magnification I cannot confirm what I would love to believe, i.e. that it is legit. It's the first time I am dealing with a bogus item - a learning curve.

Thanks perf12 for the links. I am into Southern African and African stamps (spent 27 years in SA), but inherited 30 albums from my father, mostly European stamps. Cannot quickly discern what could be valuable or not, what could be potentially fake and so on - do not have a good eye for it, struggle with that mass of stamps

Adam

Hi Adam,

One test that you might like to try is to measure the height of the eagle overprint.

The genuine overprint is 19¾ mm in height while in most forgeries this is 20½ mm.

Thank you. I have never thought that I would be busy measuring eagles!

I guess that's settles it? I was trying to put that eagle as striaght as possible.