Cleaned Stamps? Surely Not A Fake? Overprint Out Of Proportion!

Hey team

I have recieved some beautiful Liberian stamps and in amongst the little treasures found this one..


Now my atrocious photo taking does not show how pink it really is both front and back. its as pink as a small childs favorite dress! Now I have other pennys which were meant to be a dark pink as it is their paper.

I considered that it may have been 'cleaned' and what is the situation there. How do you guys feel about it. Personally I was a little dismayed and started looking at the other ones with suspicion. That full stop on that 5c overprint looks a little large!

the 16c stamp is from 1882
It could simply be faded rather than washed out
Early Liberia seem to come in lots of colours/shades/variants which can make up a collection in their own right

The OS shows it's an Official Service stamp

Difficult to see from the scan but the full stop looks as if it might be part of the cancel rather than the overprint

Useful website
http://philib.org/

The 16c is probably just faded. The ink is somewhat fugitive in water. Why would anyone clean a stamp with no huge premium for mint over used and leave the back with no gum?

I agree also that the "full stop" is from the cancel. The color of the cancel and overprint are clearly different, and this is the color of the cancel.

You are so very observant hy-brasil. Even with the terrible scanning it does look like part of the cancel.

Thank you for the link mikwizzy