The 1c and 2c stamps of the 1889-92 P&R issue

The forgeries of these two stamp are not easy to spot especially the 1c stamp. Sometimes one has a good suspicion when the shade of colour seems wrong but as can be seen from examples here, the forgeries comes in different shades, some quite close to the original stamp.

The 1c stamp was issued in 1892. There are two constant dot flaws with the authentic stamp but they are so small that it is hardly worth discussing in practice. But the the forgery has two easy to notice features that make things a lot simpler. In case you are not sure, only the middle stamp in the upper lot and the first 2 stamps of the second lot of 3 are real. Again the fake thinner bar cancellation looks like the real thing.

The right side lion is the fake. There is a bare patch just above the first hind leg which is absent on the lion on the left. The forgery also has a "black eye" on the right ie left eye which can not be regarded as a constant feature and can also be present in a minor degree in the real stamp.

The bottom left ornament in the fake stamp is noticeably more centered to the left side as compared to the authentic stamp even though in the real stamp it is not exactly symmetrical and less obvious. 

The 2c stamp was issued in 1889 and is catalogued in 2 shades. The one on the left is brown and the other one is lake brown. There are 2 constant flaws to take note and both are coloured dots.

There is a coloured dot to the upper left of 2 and another which is left of NORTH and above H in BRITISH.

The forgeries tend to be a lighter shade. The 2 in 2 CENTS is too close to the frame line above and also the bottom left ornament is centred towards the left side.

I was fooled by this one some years ago. It is not the £400 imperf between horizontal but a fake. The thick bar cancel is the giveaway here. These thick bar were said to be forged by Carame (Selsor, Sarawak Specialist Society).

The 14 bar type fake cancellations would seem to have originated from Fournier as seen on this group of Fournier forgeries handstamped with FAUX which was part of the assembled items in the Fournier albums.

Update  4 11 2018

I saw this sheet of 50 of 1c Fournier/Carame. It is hard to distinguish between these two. Anyway, there are lots of interesting errors here which I can show. 

Stamp 16 on the second row has what looks like OME in ONE CENT.  I have a more obvious example in one of my Fournier Queen heads of Labuan.

The stamp at the beginning of row 2, stamp 11 has the E which looks like that from the Greek alphabet.

This is the 6th stamp on row 3 or stamp 36 which has a C instead of ONE in the value tablet.

The 1/2c stamp of the 1889-1892 P&R issue

The half cent stamp was issued in 1889. It comes in the two shades of magenta and rose. There were 5 different transfers, each with a slight variation in colour but only two shades are listed in the SG catalogue. I am often puzzled by the issue of the half cent stamp as it was not related to any ongoing postal rate and also unlikely any revenue rate either.

                    

These are the two shades of colour. There are quite a few constant flaws to look out for in the authentic half cent stamp. For practical purposes and to make things simple it is better to concentrate on the easy points. The real stamp lacks the extra stroke between the first and second horizontal strokes of the first Chinese character on the right hand side.  In addition the other easy to notice constant feature is the coloured dot on the right side of 2 in 1/2 cent.

This is the CTO imperf pair in rose and clearly shows the coloured dot next to 2 and lacking the extra stroke in the Chinese character.

                               

Both of these are very good fakes. The left item shows the extra stroke clearly and also lacks the coloured dot next to 2. The other very important feature is the smaller and raised c in CENT. The right stamp is the corrected version without the extra stroke in the first Chinese character. It is an uncommon forgery but it still lacks the coloured dot and also has the abnormal looking c in CENT. There is also a slight curve in the second and third horizontal strokes of the first character in the forgery. So with these features alone, one can confidently pick out the forgery and the normal stamp. The corrected forged stamp is worth looking out for.         

                                                                                           

This pair compares the original half cent stamp with the corrected Fournier on the right with the coloured dot next to 2 missing and the slightly raised C in CENT. The perforations are well matched but the paper that these half cent forgeries were printed on has a dull brownish tinge. On the forgery there is also a very well executed bar cancellation. You can click on this image for a closeup and look for the other subtle differences especially with the Chinese characters on the right side. Please also note that the scroll containing POSTAGE & REVENUE touches the outer frame on both sides and there is noticeable gap on the left side with the forgeries.

These three are all forgeries together with fake cancellations. The last stamp has bars that are almost the same as the 14 bar cancel used at Sandakan. I have reasons to think that the stamp in the middle is a Carame and the other two from Fournier. The Carame has a better printed quality and also the presence of the fake Labuan bars (Selsor, Sarawak Specialist Society).  The last stamp on the right has the shade in rose but that is probably because it was over soaked and faded. Magenta is the norm for the Fournier half cent forgeries. 

This is mainly to show that there is a slight variation in height in stamps of this issue. The half cent stamp is the tallest stamp of the group and probably that it was printed at a different time than most of the group. The 6c is the shortest and was the last to be issued in 1892.

A part sheet of 40 of the half cent forgery of the crude set. The printing is not precise and was said to be in sheets of 100. Multiples of the crude multiperf stamps are more uncommon than those from Fournier. But it is rather strange that the extra stroke in the first Chinese character is also present here. Curiously, it would seem that this value in particular was copied from the Founier/Careme forgeries.

Update 12/10/2016
I bought this full sheet of the Carame half cent forgery. The difference with Fournier is not very apparent to me. I was told about the quality of printing, the more accurate colour and the evenness of the whole sheet and perforations etc but nothing easy to understand and used in practice. There may be further updates as I study this sheet carefully.