Spud Papers – El Salvador

Each of the genuine stamps of this state has been separately and most carefully engraved, so that forgers must ever find them very difficult to imitate. It is useless wasting space in minutely describing the counterfeits, when they are all so plainly branded with the mark of their own condemnation, as those are which are now under review. In the originals, each of the quartet has its value many times repeated, in very small letters, between the inscribed labels and the central oval. In the shams, this background is shown by a plaid pattern; and the labels themselves are, of course, of poor workmanship.

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