A Few Curiosities From The French Colonies

Recently I managed to buy a really large collection of French colonies. I plan to examine it thoroughly and then sell individual stamps. I found a lot of good and interesting material and decided to share a few interesting facts with you. If there is interest in this topic, I will add more photos. I will also be grateful for any comments. So far I have only used Michel's catalog, but it is very imprecise in these areas. I am waiting impatiently for the already purchased Maury catalog.

I really enjoy looking at your material. Please continue to post! Great stamps.

interesting stamps.
the Congo stamps are trial proofs.
http://www.philafrica.be/CHASSEPOT/essais.htm
The Guadelonpe overprint error exist in several forms; like Gnadeloupe also.
The Chine "A PERCEVOIR" looks forged to me.
The 1903 Guadeloupe G&D 5 surcharge looks like a forgery.The right tip of the serif on top of the 5 points to high.Also the serifed G is to narrow.The inside portion of the D is to roundish on the right.There are many variants of G&D put it doesn't fit with any of them.
The Madagascar "Majunga" manuscript ovpt. stamps are forgeries.The genuine style of the numerals are not like in those stamps.These should have a readable cancel of 25 Fev 1895.It was a provisional stamp.There are some very good forgeries on the market.Genuine ones with a cancel sell for over 2000$.They only exist used.

Yes, please keep posting. The images and both excellent and extremely interesting.

Nice stamps. Yes, please show some more when you get the chance.

I am laughing about one thing. You live in Poland and you're buying French colonies. Couple years ago, I sold my French area collections, except for St. Pierre, so I could buy more Poland stamps. Poland is one of my three main specialties, along with Mexico, Portugal & colonies.

I am aware that some of the stamps are fake, this is always the case in old large collections. Today I will try to show you another portion. I will still appreciate any comments.

I throw in another batch of photos. As always, I am waiting for all comments. I also have a question about the CHINE 2 Cents stamp - because I can't find it in the catalog.

As I mentioned, I plan to sell stamps from this collection individually and I have this question: Where in your opinion is the best to sell French colonies? ebay or Delcampe? or maybe another service? What are your experiences?

China 2 cents over 25 cents is Yvert # 19 (from 1901)

The Chine 2c on 25c (1901) is a forgery. The 'CHINE'overprint is askew and poorly printed ,wrong color.Plus it has the same color shade as the 2c overprint.For your reference the pic below of the genuine stamp is from a Siegal auction 1091,2015,lot 57.



__________________________________________________________________
The french India red cross inverted overprint is a forgery.Wrong shapes in the cross,5, & c.Like many French colonies overprinted & surcharged stamps from this time;they were pure speculative creations.The red cross overprinted stamp was sold out in 1 day.Collectors were grabbing up anything that was issued in any form;inverted surcharges were purposely done to satisfy collectors.

Thank you, what do you think about the other stamps?

The Senegal 1F surcharge looks GENUINE.
The red cross overprints are not conform.Wrong shape of 5 and poor printing.

Chine same thing ."CHINE" not conform,poor printing & letter shapes.
The genuine double types are clear and distinct.


The inverted "CHINE" on the 5c green indochine is doubtful.

The "Navigation and Commerce" stamps were forged by Fournier and also the overprint applied on them.
Because I have genuine stamps and forging, I can give you some information to identify them:
1.Perforation. 17 teeth vertically = forgerie / 16 = genuine
2.Gumm. white, translucent = forgerie / yellow, brownish = genuine.
3.Design. Flattened fruit, fingerless hand = forgerie / round fruit, correct hand = genuine.
Some examples from my stamps:
PACKHOI overprint stamps are forgerie (17 teeth)
The pair with overprint 05 is genuine (1.5 mm between 0 and 5 is normal / distance of 2 mm is variety). Check the distances to your pair, I have the impression that it is more than 2 mm.Possible forged overprint on genuine stamp.
Guadeloupe with G&D 5 double overprint is forged stamp (17 teeth)
Guadeloupe with G&D 15 inverted overprint is forged stamp (17 teeth)

some examples of the general issue

The Imperial general Colony stamps are very nice.The ones you marked are fake.identifiable cancels are always worth more
a list of the Letter markings in the lozenge cancels.
CCH (Cochinchine)
DJ (Djibouti Côte des Somalis)
GPE (Guadeloupe)
GUY FRANC (Guyane)
MQE (Martinique)
NCE (Nouvelle Calédonie)
NSB (Nossi-Bé)
SPM (Saint -Pierre-et-Miquelon)

Great thread! Nice scans with good information and helpful comments. Kudos all around!

Agreed. I learned a lot.