21/05/2015
The „Stock Exchange“ Forgery
In 1898 supplies of used 1S. Type J25, from old telegraph forms originally used at the Stock Exchange Post Office, came on the market. That a proportion of these were skilful forgeries was noticed by the well-known philatelist, Mr. Charles Nissen. They were evidence of a successful and lucrative fraud perpetrated 26 years earlier.
Although the culprit was never identified it is fair to assume that one of the counter clerks must have been using the forged stamps; when telegrams were handed in he would take the cash from the sender, as was the custom, and would affix the equivalent amount in stamps. Whenever he used his forged stamps his genuine stock would not be depleted and he could pocket the money. The great success of this fraud was made possible mainly because no one apart from the perpetrator handeld the forgeries; at least until after they had been affixed to the telegram forms and genuinely cancelled.
The forgeries have no watermark and are not as finely produced as the genuine stamps, nevertheless, thay are skillful. Serveral different letterings are found, some of which are impossible in the sense that no such combination of letters occurred on genuine sheets. Both Plates 5 and 6 which were in current use at the time were forged. Plate 6 is the scarcer and the better produced of the two. These forgeries are popular with collectors and very high priced.
