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Spanish Civil War Overprints On "El Cid" Stamps - Are They Bogus?

 
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Pillar Of The Community

United Kingdom
622 Posts
Posted 09/08/2025   12:22 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this topic Add DavidR to your friends list Get a Link to this Message
*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***
Good afternoon all.
I am sorting an old collection of Spain and came across these Civil War overprints. My old SG catalogue has a section on such things, but none of these are listed there, leading me to think they could be bogus. The only one that looks anywhere near is the top stamp, but the overprints listed for Baena are not in this format.
Can anyone shed any light on these for me?
Any info gratefully received.
Regards
DavidR
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Pillar Of The Community
Netherlands
6526 Posts
Posted 09/08/2025   12:43 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add NSK to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Interesting this is your second post of items similar to items recently posted on the LastDodo stamp forum.

https://www.lastdodo.nl/nl/communit...e-postzegels

You will need a specialised Edifil catalogue volume that lists the so-called Emisiones Locales Particulares (ELP numbers), or the catalogue by Julio Allepuz Querol (also published by Edifil). These are from the nationalist territories.

Only very few nationalist stamps issued were issued with the consent of the nationalist government. The only overprints on nationalist issues were those paying the fees for carriage to Lisbon - Burgos - Germany from Las Palmas, on board Lufthansa's flight TO-191.

Many private persons bought stamps and had them overprinted so they could sell them for a big profit. As the nationalist government had little reason to invalidate stamps that had such overprints, it, not necessarily, invalidated them.

That said, generally, they are bogus. Some were made at a later date. As more research is done, more approvals by "local" commanders are found to be bogus or antedated. Edifil is heavily criticised for listing such stamps.

That two very similar sets pop up within about a week is very odd. Most private overprints were applied on more than a single stamp from a set, usually "Cifras, Cid e Isabel." Both your set and the one posted on LastDodo focus on the "Cid" 5 cms brown. To me, that would raise a big red flag.
If they are listed in the catalogues I mentioned, there is a market for them. However, that does not change that they are dubious or outright bogus.

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Edited by NSK - 09/08/2025 12:45 pm
Pillar Of The Community
Netherlands
6526 Posts
Posted 09/08/2025   1:13 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add NSK to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
This is the set posted on LastDodo, last week



I have a feeling someone has been very busy creating these sets a few decades ago.
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Pillar Of The Community
United Kingdom
622 Posts
Posted 09/08/2025   2:03 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add DavidR to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Thanks for the info NSK! Must admit to not being aware of 'The last dodo' website. With these not being in the SG catalogue I was already leaning towards them being bogus. Will keep them and annotate them as such.
Regards
DavidR
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Pillar Of The Community
Netherlands
6526 Posts
Posted 01/07/2026   4:20 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add NSK to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Having another look at these stamps, I am quite sure these are utter fakes.

The 5 cms "Cid" stamp was first issued as part of the "Cifras, Cid e Isabel" series of 1937 - 1939. This was line perforated ca. 11. It came in three varieties. Two had the name of the printer (Hija de B.Fournier of Burgos) at the foot od the stamp. These were issued in 1937 and 1938. Not until mid-1939, after the end of the Civil War, was it issued without this imprint.

In 1940, after the Nationalist Government had moved the stamp printing equipment to the premises of the FNMT in Madrid. The stamps were printed by the FNMT. They did not have the name of the printer at the foot of the stamp. The ink was a 'sepia' colour rather than the 'chestnut' colour of the original printing. Edifil mentions a comb 11 perforation. I have a block of this stamp that, without doubt, has a line perforation.

The stamp made another appearance in 1949. This was comb perforated (ca. 13˝) and again printed in 'chestnut.' All stamps appear to be printed in 'chestnut' have the 1949 perforation, when these patriotic overprints date to the Civil War era.

But even ignoring the colour and the perforation, the lack of the printer's imprint at the foot of the stamp on all examples date the overprints to a period after the end of the Civil War. Unless someone managed to find Civil War printings with the imprint in error (and comb perforations ratherthan line perforations), they are fantasy items.
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Edited by NSK - 01/07/2026 4:24 pm
Pillar Of The Community
543 Posts
Posted 01/08/2026   05:03 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add Murasama to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
I'm no expert on Spanish stamps, but I've seen many with all sorts of patriotic overprints from private or local sources. The group of photos, in my opinion, all the designs have the same typography, which seems odd considering the locations are so far apart couldn't have been printed locally. That does seem strange to me; they certainly all came from the same printing press.
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Valued Member
United Kingdom
315 Posts
Posted 01/08/2026   05:35 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add Flightle_Bee to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply


"Tens foc, Papa?"
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Edited by Flightle_Bee - 01/08/2026 05:39 am
Pillar Of The Community
Netherlands
6526 Posts
Posted 01/08/2026   05:54 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add NSK to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
I know of at least one member who will not be amused by that image.
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