The forgery annexed will be found a sufficiently near imitation to puzzle tyros considerably. It is, however, too coarse in appearance and in the execution of the face to be a dangerous forgery to any one who knows the originals. If we refer to the forgery annexed, we shall observe that the value is in very large letters, that the arched white line under POSTAGE is very thick, and its edges are ragged; that the crossed lines of the background are defective under this arched white line on the left-hand side, leaving a slight white mark there (but this is not so clear on “slurred” specimens of this forgery); that the inner line running downwards on the left-hand side (under HONOLULU) has been thickened in its lower part, i.e., from the epaulette downwards; on the right side, the inner line running downwards (under HAWAIIAN 1s) is broken off under the H of HAWAIIAN, and does not appear lower down, causing the edge of the background to bulge slightly outwards under that word, and to be ragged and unequal from the epaulette downwards; the hair of the king’s head has too much white in it. The opposite of all these points characterizes the genuine stamp, which is very beautifully engraved, though somewhat coarser in details than we are now accustomed to observe in stamps engraved upon steel. There is one point which we have never seen imitated by forgeries, and that is, in the genuine stamp in the label containing the value at base, there are two minute marks proceeding from the upper line forming the edge of that label; they occur, to the left, over the F and I, to the right, over and between the T and S.

These two marks are the remnants of the two vertical lines which occur on the same label in the 13 c. of this issue. The 13 c. was the first engraved, and the same die was used to print the 5 c. In making the alterations requisite, these two lines were not taken “clean” out, but the two points or marks were left, and to these we now call attention.

The principal discrepancies that strike us in this forgery are, there is too much white in the king’s hair, and the face is too roughly shaded. On the genuine stamp we may, as in the 5 cents previously described, find a trifling point which no forgery known to us has imitated. It is this, that the right-hand outer line of the frame is composed of two fine lines, instead of one. Again, the 5 CENTS in the left-hand label should have a dot after. As will be seen, this forgery omits it, and the lower halves of all the figures 3 should be larger and bolder than the upper halves, a point in which the forgery again fails.

From the fact of the original of this forgery being a poorly engraved stamp, (said to be a lithograph) the specimen annexed is somewhat more dangerous than the previous or the succeeding forgeries. however, be at once detected by the absence of the dot after KENETA; but as it would not take the makers a minute to add this, we may further remark, that It may, the figure 2 in each upper angle should be in the center, and not so near to the right side as to all but touch. In the value below ELUA KENETA the forgery makes the center strokes of all the letters E too bold, as they are quite immature and very thin in the genuine: the color, too, is never so red in the genuine. We may here recall to our readers that there are two distinct issues of this 2 C, the first (the only one we have ever seen postmarked) being a poorly engraved stamp (said to be lithographed) on laid paper; the other—only known to us unused or marked “Specimen”—being precisely the same in every detail, but clearly engraved from a steel die, on yellowish wove paper.

These forgeries are both much too coarse in their execution, although cleverly done so far as their inferior execution can imitate the superb engraving (on steel) of the originals. In each forgery the background can be clearly traced, crossed lines in the 2 C., horizontal lines in the 5 C., whilst the originals are so finely drawn that the backgrounds are difficult to decide about at first sight. The vertical lines in the labels containing inscriptions are very coarse in
the forgeries herewith; but in the genuine stamps the lines are so fine (especially in the upper labels) that it is difficult to trace them without a magnifying glass. The paper upon which all these five forgeries are printed is very common and white; and the cancellation is one we never saw anything like, except upon the earliest issued Chileans, and some Canadians and United States.