Forged Stamps of Hamburg

Four shading lines in the left-side of the scroll

There is a dot (strong to very faint) beneath the left end of the left top-stroke of ‘H’

Crossbar of ‘H’ is exactly in the middle

The left 6-sided star is located directly over a tower battlement as shown, and closer to the main tower than the right 6-sided star

‘B’ has a foot stroke.

Cross does not touch the scroll

Center stroke of ‘B’ slopes upwards to the left

The right 6-sided star is located directly over the right edge of a tower battlement as shown

Long cross stroke of ‘G’

Five shading lines in the right-side of the scroll, the first being 1/2 length of the others

Left central part of ‘3’ is square

There are six shading lines in the left-side of the scroll. The left-most is nearly a full line. The remaining five look like short vertical dashes/dots on top/bottom of ‘P’. None of these shading lines traverse through the ‘P’ itself but their ends are usually present.

‘P’ learns heavily to the left

‘O’ in POSTMARKE is tall and oval

Most of the letters in POSTMARKE have foot strokes

‘S’ in SCHILLING does not touch the trident ornament

Upper horizontal limb of ‘E’ in POSTMARKE is broken or sometimes connected by a thin line

The diagonal strokes of the ‘K’ are finely joined about midway

Four shading lines at the right-side of the scroll. First two beginning under ‘E’. The third is drawn only half way up the right foot stroke of ‘E’. The fourth right-most line is a full line. None of these lines traverse through the ‘E’.

Eleven shading lines in the right side of the scroll, the innermost sometimes very faint.

Right side of the scroll is closer to the bottom margin than the left side