Lithographed. No watermark, white gum. No stop after BIN in the I G.GR. Head of unicorn like the open beak of an eagle. No dot for nostril. The crown on the lion’s head is of an indescribable shape; it is something like a crescent laid flat, with one horn longer than the other. His tongue ends in a knob curling slightly downwards, and there is no mane on the cheeks. The harp has only two strings when any are visible at all, but in most copies the instrument is merely a blotch. The point at the top of the shield of value just touches the motto-scroll above it, but is not covered by it. Thin inner line of frame often so blotched as to touch the outer one. Being lithographed, there is no trace of embossing on any of the stamps. Printed in sheets of 25, and sometimes postmarked with an imitation of the genuine postmark, but without the central date-figures.

Lithographed, on very badly made white wove paper, un- gummed, no watermark. There are only 29 lines in the central oval. The whole of the design is very much blotched, the letters frequently run into each other, the first E of SILBERGROSCHEN has a flaw at the top -(visible in all copies), and the burele pattern is so heavy and coarse that the design of the stamp is almost hidden by it. The H of HANNOVER touches the third line of the central oval. The letters of value are large, and almost touch the scroll at top and bottom. Printed in dirty rose-pink, and postmarked with HANNOVER in double circle, but no date. This stamp is not calculated to deceive; the absence of the rose gum, and the number of the lines (29 instead of 32) in central oval, afford a ready means of detection. The paper on which the forgeries are printed looks as though bones, and old iron, and tarred ropes, and all kinds of rubbish, had been ground up to make the pulp, besides the old rags which are ordinarily used for that purpose.

Lines of groundwork have a ragged look. Pearls round the head very small, and apparently a little distance apart. The king’s nose is rather snub, and only a slight touch of shading by the eyebrow. Between the outer circle and the outer line, there is only one of the vertical groundworklines to be seen on either side. The lettering is blotchy, and looks as if it had “run”. The gum is white. In these stamps, I have found it exceedingly difficult to give such tests as will enable a collector, possessing only one specimen, to decide at once whether that specimen is genuine or forged; for, though there are many differences between the genuine stamps and their imitations, I must, in justice to the forgers, say that these differences are very slight. The forgeries just described comprise both the yellow and the bistre 3 Groschen.

The great mistake of the forgers has here been to lithograph their stamps too well; so that the forgeries look better than the genuine specimens. As before, the chief test is, that there are only 30 lines in the oval. Imperforate, with white gum.