Are These Fake Zepp Covers?

Several years ago I posted a Graf Zeppelin cover for sale on ebay and was immediately informed that it was a fake. I pulled the cover right away with an inquiry to the eBayer who claimed it was fake why he/she thought so, but never rec'd a response. The cover submerged into a shoe box to be recently retrieved because over time I've acquired several other covers that seem questionable, at least to me.

My quest to find out more about fake Zeppelin covers has not been met with much success. So, I turn to those folks on SCF who might be able to point out and teach me, if no one else, some of the methods to detect the fakes.

Yes, I have the Zeppelin Post Katalog by Sieger-Verlag. And, over the years I've been successful in selling a number of other Zeppelin covers on ebay that I was 99% sure were genuine without any problems.

The cover shown below is the one about which I was informed was a fake. It most likely is because the one cancel on the front that is remotely readable seems to have the year date "37" on the green stamp at left, whereas the back stamp on the reverse is April 6, 1932. The April 6th date matches close to a departure date of April 5, 1932 from Friedrichshafen to Recife. Both the front and reverse circular markings seem iffy to me as well as the vertical marking at the left edge on the front which I've never seen on any other Zeppelin cover I've sold or seen on ebay.

I'll follow later with several other covers I think might be questionable, but I'll close for now and, hopefully, wait to be schooled on Zeppelin covers.

Compare the cachets on these two examples of that flight

https://germanpostalhistory.com/php...over=search&
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Dt-Reich-Ze...372779636990

A couple things. The flight cachet is very fuzzy, which is unusual. The rear has an on-board cancel, which was typically only used to cancel mail posted on-board the zeppelin. There's not a good reason for it to be randomly applied to the rear of a cover that has already been canceled in Jerusalem. Third, if I'm reading my Michel correctly, several of those stamps were issued post-April 1932.

NSK, yes, a definite loss in detail and size when comparing the cachet on the cover I posted to the ones displayed in the two links you provided. That would mean that the back stamp is bogus as well as the funky straight line marking at the left edge on the front and the Mit Luftpost markings.

The cover most likely never saw Germany in its transit from Jerusalem to England.

Thanks very much for your input.

It may never have seen Jerusalem, Germany, or England!

PostmasterGS, You might be right. The 4 and 7 mil stamps look like the colour varieties issued 1-6-1932 and the 13 mil was not issued until 1-8-1932.

That seems to read "Par Zeppelin - via Friedrichshafen"

PostmasterGS, you're right, geez, that's one of the first things I should've checked prior to putting the cover out years ago and certainly should've checked before putting it out on SCF and asking what amounts to be a pretty stupid question about the authenticity of it being a genuine Zeppelin cover. However, I'm glad that I did because it gets me off the dime with several of these questionable covers that have been sitting around far too long.

Here's another faked Zeppelin cover that is severely underpaid with only a Liechtenstein 30 rappen stamp (Scott No. 99). It does pass the issuance date test. There is no receiving mark on the reverse with the exception of the Luxembourg town it is addressed to and, the posted date, October 11, 1934, and the receiving date October 12, 1934 on the reverse would rule out being on any Zeppelin flight as the missive was only one day in transit from sender to addressee. Interestingly, the addressee, Maury Swartz, is mentioned in Herman Herst, Jr's famous tome, Nassau Street, a few pages into Chapter 10.

PostmasterGS, thanks for your response. I might have one more cover for you to look at.

Interesting that the "Par Zeppelin ..." is applied in the same hand on both covers.

How nice. The same person seems to have written "Par Zeppelin - Via Friedrichshaven." Look at the capital letters.

I believe the "Par Zeppelin...." on the prior covers is a rubber hand stamp. If someone could do an overlay of the two straight-lines they will match up exactly.

Here is another fake Zepp cover with an obvious rubber hand stamp straight-line "By Graf Zeppelin" marking. The stamp appears to have a "30" (1930?) year date while the Friedrichshafen back stamp is 1933.

Can someone explain how this cover ends up with a Friedrichshafen back stamp?

The two match perfectly, this is a stamp and not done by hand.
Don

The Friedrichshafen cancel on the back is likely a forgery, as is the red confirmation cachet on the front.

As with the initial item, there's no reason for that cancel to be on the rear, as it was only used to cancel items that were posted in Friedrichshafen, and it would be placed as a normal cancel would. I'm also fairly certain that the red "Europa-Südamerika" cachets didn't come into use until the 1934 flights.

Based on the address and other handwriting, I suspect that these are Fox fakes. This link only shows US and CSA Fox fakes, but I believe all will see the similarity in the handwriting I am talking about.....
https://www.uspcs.org/resource-cent...fake-covers/

Nice link. Seems Fox was a busy fellow.

Yes, they are obvious fakes in so far as being flown on a Zeppelin. What they appear to be is authentic regular covers from a dealer's $1 box where the forger has added fake cachets (not very professionally made ones and inappropriate to the given flights) and notations to fool uninformed but overly eager buyers.

By the way, that red circular Europa-Sudamerika cachet is an obvious forgery, but when you find a cover that has an authentic one on it but no other cachet you should be understood that it does not guarantee the cover was flown on a Zeppelin. This red circular cachet was also used on the mail that was flown on seaplanes across the Atlantic to South America. Look closely at the cachet and you will see it depicts not only a Zeppelin but also a seaplane since it was intended to be used on both kinds of service - whichever would transport the mail the fastest on a given day or week. You need to learn what the correct dates are for the Zeppelin flights and what are the dates for the seaplane flights to tell the difference.