Mytilene (Lesbos) Type Overprint On Turkey Scott# 154 (Design A21), Catalogue Number?

Hi,

I was having trouble identifying the catalogue number of this stamp.

It looks it could be one of the stamps listed under Mytilene (Lesbos) in the back of the Greece section (In my 2017 Scott Classic Specialized catalogue).

It seems sort of like N71, but not quite. The underlying stamp seems the same, but the stamp should be surcharged 2d, but I don't see a 2.

Any help is appreciated!

Great thread Title! well done.

I can confirm the Postmark is genuine.

Island of Mitylene, Midilli, Metelin (LESBOS)
MIDILLI (Turk)
Coles and Walker #40 Page 80
(Lost Territories in Europe - Blue Book)
29mm Circular 6 (Number 1) - 1912

Under the "Capitulations", Post Offices were established in Mytilene
by Austria, Egypt, France and Russia.

I'm not an expert here (is anyone? I've yet to find a signed or certified example of the drachma surcharges), but everything seems to point to this being a forgery.

Neither Michel nor Vlastos lists your example. The surcharge that Scott doesn't illustrate (in my older catalog at least) reads DIDRACHMON in Greek, meaning "two drachmas". Neither they nor Scott list an error of the surcharge with the DRACHME (singular drachma) overprint like on N70.

The three-line overprint looks good to me and those are known forged particularly in the varieties. But there are genuine (and inexpensive) ones of the basic overprinted stamps around.

Cancel: MIDILLI was the name of the city of Mytilene under Ottoman rule. So the cancel makes sense except that the ones I've seen for the Greek overprints had the Turkish lettering at top removed and the (Turkish) numbering in the date line also removed. 9 November 1912 is the first date for all the Greek overprints but catalogs list the drachma surcharges issue date as just 1912. And yes, there are MIDILLI cancels with the Turkish parts removed that were dated 9 November 1912.

I stumbled across this:
https://siris-libraries.si.edu/ipac...01~!274958!0
Les surcharges de Mytilene, by M. le Comte de Fayolle, 1913 Yvert booklet, available/viewable online downloadable - it's in the public domain. You must be signed in, but when I tried to sign up, it conveniently sent me to my Microsoft account and then told me my credentials were invalid. Your mileage may vary.

Downloaded OK, Thank you.
No image of Poster's Overprint example (Bolded)

Postmarks
METELIN (French)

31 Mytilene 1868
32 Midilli shubeshi (Market) 1886
33 Midilli Carsisi 1289 (Google translate = Pony Carriage) 1876

Hm. Did you click on the link given at the bottom of the page mentioned? That only gives you a download of the page mentioned. At least, that's what I got.

Thanks again, rod. These are the Ottoman era cancels, I believe. There is also a double ring Greek-lettered Greek-style cancel on Mytilene issues.

I opened the file, which was a flip page style *.pdf.
When I got to page 3 or so, a download icon appeared
and I saved a normal *.pdf of the booklet

I am not sure I could repeat.

Open link
Click on book image
It opens with download icon.......

Nice to have Windows 10, read it to me in French,
I understand about 5%

Solved....the Overprint on the original Poster's stamp

Scarce do you think?

Caveat: shows only on the 20 paras, NOT the 1 Piastre.
Must be listed in Yvert & Tellier

I think French catalogues for the French area would only list the French stamps used at Metelin.

The four stamps on Rod's list are Yvert # 16/9 (Mytilene)
But Yvert # 18 (overprint on Yvert # 156 from Turkey) is not the OP's stamp

(not my stamp)

I think it is a bogus DRACMI ovdrprint on the 1pi blue stamp.The Fayolle book does not mention this error;if there was one..Plus he notes printers were at work turning out many types of un authorized overprnts in numbers exceding the quota.

Thank you, rod. I'm too dumb to figure that out but the download works for me also. I got a checklist that even offered to download in e-book format. Now to look for more digitized public domain stuff in that collection!

Always good to have vayolene and perf12 and GeoffHa contributing as well.

Perf12 wrote:


That helps seal it for me that this is bogus. It would be too easy for them to take a sheet/pane of the 3-line overprinted stamp and use the surcharge setup for the rose stamp. Plus, note the issue date the Count gives. That disqualifies the cancel on the OP's stamp as being used postally.

As well as the other problems the postmark looks wrong to me. :(

The fonts don't match those shown in either Coles & Walker or Nicolas & Galinos (especially the large figure "1").

and NIGEL as well

Righty O, accept this is fraudulent, thanks everyone indeed !

I had been excusing the difference in the CDS
as having been a different hammer,
I could not see anyone making up a decent Pmk impression like that on an obscure stamp.
But the weight of observance here by all, has me accepting FORGERY.

Interesting route, enjoyed this.

Hi all,

In case anyone is interested...

My Hellas 2018 Vol. 3 (New Territories and Cancellations) Catalogue came today.

If I'm reading it right, my stamp appears to be listed as 17c, with a catalogue value of 160 euros whether mint or used. I've uploaded a picture of the catalogue page below.

This appears to be evidence that they do exist....though as expected, there is a note that forged overprints exist......and the posts in this discussion lean toward a non-postal cancel, so who knows if it's real? I welcome any further discussion on it.

Either way, definitely not something I had seen before.