Album Weeds – Cordoba | Stampforgeries of the World

1860. 5 Centavos, blue.

Genuine

Lithographed, in various shades of more or less pale, chalky blue, on moderately stout, rough laid paper, and also on plain wove paper, the latter being rare; indeed, I have not yet seen them on wove, though I know that they exist. The letters of CORDOBA are thick, almost as thick as those of CEN, but smaller. One type of the 5 c. has a stop after CEN. The background, behind the top of the castle, is filled with horizontal lines of shading, in short dashes; the shading on the left being darker than that on the right. The white platform, upon which the three little turrets stand, is shaded with short, vertical lines almost the whole way across. The central oval is surrounded by a sort of chain-pattern, with square, white links, each link having a dark line through it; but one of the links, above and after the N of CEN, is smaller than the rest, and has 110 colored line through it. The head of the 5 very nearly touches the chain-pattern in lightly-printed copies, and in heavily-printed ones it actually touches it. The upper three pearls on the left-hand side of the stamp are shaded alike, each of them bearing a single, thick, curved line, like a sort of crescent standing on its end; all the other pearls on the left-hand side have two similar lines, joined at the bottom, making a sort of curved V. The upper two pearls on the right-hand side have a sort of crescent, with a peak in the middle of the hollow part, as well as at each end; all the other pearls on the right-hand side have the curved V. The door of the castle is very darkly shaded, being almost the darkest part of the stamp.

Forged

Very much better done than the genuine. Typographed, in greenish-blue, on smooth wove paper, very hard. The letters of CORDOBA are thinner than those of CEN, and much clearer than in the genuine. There is never any stop after CEN. The background, behind the top of the castle, has hardly the faintest trace of the horizontal lines of shading. The white platform at the top of the castle, on which the three little turrets stand, has only one vertical line of shading, and the commencement of two or three others; all the rest of the platform being quite white. The square, white links of the chain-pattern are all alike; the one above the end of the N of CEN being just like all the others, and having the colored line through it. The head of the 5 is at a good distance from the chain-pattern. The whole of the pearls on the left hand side are shaded alike, with the curved v. All the pearls on the right-hand side also bear the curved V, except the lowest two, which have a U instead. The door of the castle is lightly shaded, but it has a dark outline.

1860. 10 Centavos, black.

Genuine

I have not been able to obtain any specimens of the genuine 10 c. for inspection; but I believe that it varies slightly in type from the genuine 5 c., and is lithographed on laid paper, and sometimes on wove, as before.

Forged

Typographed, like the forged 5 c., on the same smooth, hard, wove paper. The color is very different from that of the genuine, being a sort of greyish-brown, instead of black. The groundwork, behind the top of the castle, shows the horizontal lines of shading, like the genuine 5 c. With this exception, this forgery is exactly the same as the forged 5 c. described above, being evidently transferred from the same original design.

Bogus Stamps.

These are the 15 c., violet; 25 c., orange; 50 c., green; and 1 peso, rose-carmine. It will be seen that I have included the 15 c. here as a bogus value; for, though it has been cataloged for a long time, nobody has ever seen it, so I think it probable that it was never issued.

All the values above-mentioned are exactly like the forged 5 c. in every particular, except that some of them show more of the horizontal lines of shading behind the top of the castle. As none of these values are to be found in the genuine set, I need say no more about them.