Most of the forgeries of this issue, with the exception of Fournier forgeries, are easy to spot. They are crude and have obvious changes from a genuine stamp. Aside from forgeries, there are also reprints of this issue. Reprints are on smooth white paper with shiny gum and are clean cut perforated 13½. The difficulty comes with Fournier forgeries.

Fournier produced his stamps which he openly advertised as inexpensive facsimiles between 1895 and the mid 1920’s. He generally created stamps that were obsolete. His forgeries were highly accurate and, in fact, he won several awards for them at international stamp exhibitions. The problem began when dealers began offering up his work as original. In 1927, his equipment and remaining stock was bought up by the Philatelic Union of Geneva. 480 albums were created and sold to dealers as references, each stamp marked indelibly with “faux” or “facsimile”. Today, a Fournier album is highly prized and will set you back anywhere from $2,000 to $15,000 depending on the completeness. The genuine stamps will almost always cost you much less.

To tell a Fournier forgery from an original look for these things:

  1. The spandrel in the upper right corner has a central leaf with two comma shaped leaves facing inward on each side and one comma shaped leaf facing outward on each side (Figure 1). In the forgery, the center leaf and the one above it are joined in part, giving a heart shaped appearance (Figure 2).
  2. Fournier used the crown design found on the crown issue of Angola as the model for all of the Portuguese crown issues. But, in all but Angola originals, the outer rows of pearls that top the curves on the crown are more oval and sharply rounded (Figure 3). Fournier forgeries of crown issues all have the rounded appearance of Angola (Figure 4).
  3. For issues of Angola, look at the “O” in ANGOLA. The shade line in the center of the “O” on the forgery is incomplete. It is complete in the original Figure 5).

References: Forgeries of Portugal and Colonies by D.J. Davies, 2002

Published by the Portuguese Philatelic Society

Notes on the Forgeries and Reprints of the Crown Issues of

Portuguese Colonies by Thomas Quinn. The American

Philatelist, Vol. 79, No. 11, Pages 8411-848.