Jammu Rectangular Forgeries

Watercolour forgery. A ½a in black, red, and blue. A considerable amount of confusion has arisen respecting this rather dangerous watercolour imitation. Masson wrote (Part I, p 35) that he included it with the missing-dies on the authority of Major Evans. Evans subsequently wrote [Philatelic Journal of India, Vol VI, p 286 (1902)] that Masson’s statement must have arisen through some misunderstanding, inasmuch as he had never seen the forgery; and Masson’s note is the more puzzling since he believed he had seen copies genuinely used with the square black seal of Jammu, an obliteration that ceased in 1879, while the missing-die type did not come into being until 1890. We have tentatively classified this forgery as one that was postally used to defraud the revenues, in deference to Masson’s profound knowledge of the early obliterations; but we are bound to admit that, in our opinion, those which we have seen, and notably those purporting to be the first Jammu obliterations in magenta, are unquestionably forged, and that we consider this imitation to have been merely made for collectors. Masson classified the forgery as that of a ½a from the Jammu plate, having the fatal inaccuracy of possessing a complete frame-line around the impression, instead of on two sides only; while Evans held that the complete frame proved the forgery to be intended as one of the types of the Kashmir ½a. The forgery is, however, only known with Jammu obliterations (whether genuine or false) and this, no doubt, influenced Masson in the view he took. This forgery is from a single die, and is of some rarity. It may always be identified by the “sun” at the top of the outer oval having the ends of the rays truncated instead of pointed; and by the downstroke of the character immediately to the right of the sun, being straight instead of bent in the middle.

Jammu Brightons. The photo-process forgeries of this group are so accurate in their details that we again give no illustration of the types. They are usually very easily detected by their papers alone, and still more so, when these are also considered in combination with colour. The forged thin laid bâtonné is not very unlike the original paper, but the lines are far too distinct. Some of this group have the appearance of having been produced at an earlier period than their companion imitations of circular, Kashmir, and new rectangular stamps. Each of the forgeries described in the table below exists, it is to be understood, in three types of ½a and one of the 1a denomination. We tabulate the Brighton forgeries of the Jammu Plate:

Some of the above may be found with forged obliteration in black with a crude representation of the British barred-L obliteration and also of wide-spaced broad bars. [Copyist’s note: Wide-spaced broad bars are also seen on the ¼a black 'thick wove' New Rectangular; it too is taken for a Brighton forgery in some quarters.]

Kashmir Rectangular Forgeries

There is, in our opinion, no known postally used forgery for inclusion in this group. The point is merely raised here since Masson held a contrary opinion in reference to a rather dangerous imitation of the 1a in his collection, which we now classify in the group [of private forgeries for collectors] that follows.

No deceptive forgery is known of the rare ½a black single die of 1866, but mention may be made of two imitations [on stout white wove paper] that obtained some success in past days and which were commonly illustrated in catalogues as genuine. The first of these shows, in place of the inscription occupying the second line in the inner oval, merely a white space with ragged edges, and the details of the outer inscriptions are hopelessly inaccurate. This forgery was originally copied from an illustration published by Moëns in Le Timbre-poste of November 1866. It was subsequently improved by the correction of the fault in the inner over.

There is also a green oilcolour forgery that is so crude that no description need be given.

The 1a forgeries. The first forgery of the [first] Kashmir plate is one of the 1a. The earliest reference to this much-debated impression seems to have been made in 1887 by Evans, who, after describing the points in which it differed from any of the five original types, added, “...Moëns only catalogues this in black...I possess specimens in blue, brown, and carmine-red, and have found it in orange in the collection of the President of the Philatelic Society.” Thirteen years later (1900) Masson commented on this by stating that he believed the imitation to have been, not only an early forgery, but actually a companion of the notorious Die I circulars, and that it had been equally successful in imposing on even advanced collectors (who had paid as much as £20 for a copy) for over thirty years. Evans subsequently recorded (Philatelic Journal of India, Vol VII, p 20, 1903) that it had been originally chronicled, as a distinct type by Dr. Legrand in 1875. If Masson’s views were correct, the forgery may have been actually produced in, or even before, 1870. The chief tests for this forgery, which is printed from a single die, are (a) that the long horizontal stroke [in the Persian word yek ~ one] in the inner oval is more distinctly sloped upwards than it is in any of the five types of originals, and (b) that the figures of the Persian date beneath it are much too small. The forgery is always in watercolour. Copies in red are only occasionally met with, and we have seen none of the others except an example in blue in the Beckton collection. [The second type of watercolour] forgery is the one already alluded to as having been noted in Masson’s collection as postally used. Masson possessed a single specimen, and we know of two others only. This old forgery is taken from subject 3 of the 1a and the design, so far as the blurred nature of the watercolour-printing allows us to follow it, is dangerously exact. Masson’s example is in orange-red on European wove paper, and we have a second specimen on European laid in the same colour. The obliterations of both of these purport to be the small circular seal in black and are, in our opinion, unquestionably forged. We recently found our third specimen in an old collection, on this occassion printed in watercolour black and showing a good imitation of the small seal in red, the paper, again, being European laid. The papers will always condemn the forgery, which would, if it was ever printed on native paper, be a very dangerous one. Tabulate the watercolour forgeries of the 1a from the First Kashmir plate (1870?)

The ¼a reversed. Our last forgery of the Kashmir Province old rectangulars illustrates something of a curiosity. The imitation is that of the ¼a and the entire design is printed in reverse in oilcolour on thick European paper.

The Old Kashmir Missing Dies. Forgeries were made by the postal officials of the 2a, 4a, and 8a. All the forgeries are from single dies, that of the 2a being often found printed in horizontal strips of five to represent the five types of the original plate. The chief tests are:

The 2a. The shade frames are double-lined, instead of single. The “sun” is too small and the dots in the spandrels too large and too few. The great majority of specimens show, apparently, a late state of the die by having a white linear flaw cutting diagonally through the top-left spandrel. Impressions from the first state are known in red on native paper.

The 4a. All the frame lines are double instead of single, and the spandrel dots are omitted.

The 8a. As in the 4a, and the “sun” is much to small.

All the forgerires are found with forged cancellations, and also with genuine 3-circle postmarks of 1890-94, which at once condemn them. The following table includes a large number of impressions that were not listed by Bacon in 1899. We tabulate the Missing-Die forgeries of Kashmir old rectangulars (all oilcolours):

The Old Kashmir Brightons. In our third instalment of this series we again refrain from giving illustrations owing to the accuracy in detail of the imitations. We should, perhaps, add that quite appreciable, though minute, differences in detail do exist throughout the group; the the task of describing them for each separate type would be a barren one and, as such description might lead to corrections in the forged plates (if these are still in existence) it is better omitted. The forged plate of the 2a was copied from a strip of reprints, and shows the small rivets in the upper margin that do no occur in originals. In this Kashmir group “fancy” colours seem to have been abandoned, but the forgeries are very easily detected by their papers alone. The [imitation] “native” paper is too thin and too grey, while no Kashmir originals were ever printed on wove paper. This group appears to have been produced in oilcolour only, a fact that further condemns them at a glance. We tabulate Brighton forgeries of Kashmir old rectangulars (all oilcolours):

► Forgeries of the New Rectangulars.

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