Spud Papers – Denmark

1851. 2 RBS Blue.

The annexed specimen is printed on paper carefully soaked in some dirty mixture to give it an appearance of extreme age: no genuine stamp was ever printed on a laid paper such as is to be seen in this forgery. The discrepancies in design are many and glaring; but those most easily noticed without comparison with a genuine, will be found as follows :

1. Slight cross above crown is on a solid ground which projects into the background, and is therefore prominent. In the genuine it is not to be distinguished readily, being upon the pattern of the background.
2. Crown too broad and regular; the fine open spaces, so prominent here, and all of a like oval shape, are smaller and most irregular in the genuine.
3. The absence of any dot after POST is very conspicuous, for the genuine bears a broad oblong mark for a period.
4. The post-horn is thin, and lacks the bold curl on the genuine which nearly hides the mouthpiece; and that curl is shewn (in the genuine) by a clear circle of dots.

The genuine stamps are usually covered with a fancy pattern in pale brown, over the whole surface of the paper, and probably designed in addition to the crown watermark, as a preventive to forgery. It is needless to add that neither watermark or burele appear on the forgery, as it may be seen from the specimen annexed.

From “The Spud Papers” by Atless, Pemberton & Earée, 1871-1881.

See also –> Album Weeds – Denmark