The following has been extracted from Stamp News (March, 1984) which was reprinting from Dr Tyler’s book Philatelic Forgeries – Their Life and Works.

In the fall of 1902, W.T. Wilson of Birmingham sent the following letter to The London Philatelist and The Stamp Collectors’ Fortnightly:

“Access has evidently been had to the plate from which the 1868 issue of Mexico was made, as I have had submitted to me for opinions some very dangerous reprints of the 6c, 50c, 100c black on brown and 100c brown on brown, both imperf. and saw tooth perf., also the error 12c black on brown.

All I have seen had forged name, number and date, and so cunningly have these surcharges been applied that the correct numbers corresponding to the town name have been used.

******

“These reprints emanate from St Louis, U.S.A. and are usually mixed with genuine 12c and 25c stamps. The reprint from the altered die of the 3c Eagle, 1864, usually accompanies the above.”

This letter greatly angered C.H Mekeel, proprietor of the C.H. Mekeel Stamp and Publishing Co. of St. Louis, since his firm’s close connection with Mexican issues was well-known. He therefore called upon Mr. Wilson to name the firm from which these forgeries had originated, but the latter declined to do so on the grounds that such disclosure “might have been actionable”. Mekeel, himself, then identified the firm as the Standard Stamp Co., or Henry Flachskamm, a native of Alsace, trading under that name in St Louis (1)

As early as 1897, Mekeel had reported the existence of the fraudulent, engraved 3c. Eagle of the 1864 issue prepared by one of the engravers in the government stamp office in Mexico City. An original die of the 8 reales stamp was altered to make a stamp of the 3 centavos denomination. From this, a new plate ot 50 impressions was made, and the counterfeits therefrom were sold with and without forged control overprints. Likewise, the fraudulent 50c. and 100c. denominations of the 1868 issue were printed, not from the original plate in which each stamp differed slightly, but from a new plate prepared from only a few of the original types. They are, therefore, not simple reprints but reprint-forgeries (2).

Flachskamm, who not only sold these forgeries but who may have had some part in their preparation, was personally responsible for the so-called reprints (actually one-half forgeries and one-half reprint-forgeries) of the 1872 Hidalgo Heads of Mexico which were widely circulated in the 1890s (3).

The set was produced from stones prepared from a genuine die of each of the five values (4) which Flachskamm obtained in 1888 from a party in Mexico City. The original plate for the moire design printed in blue on the reverse side of the stamps could not be obtained, so that portion of the reproductions is an outright forgery. On Flachskamm’s order, the new stones were prepared and the forgeries printed by a lithographic firm in St Louis. Later, much of the stock, and possibly also the stones, were sold to a wholesale stamp dealer in Hamburg (Goldern?) from which source they continued for years to come on the market (5).

In 1906, a jury in the United States District Court in Springfield, Illinois, found Flachskamm guilty of mail fraud. The case did not involve forged postage stamps but premiums of “fur collarettes” offered to women who sold cheap jewelry tor the National Mercantile Co, a firm operated in East St Louis by Flachskamm and his brother-in-law. About 4,000 victims failed to receive the premium under the advertised conditions. At the conclusion of the three-day trial, Flachskamm was sentenced by Judge Humphrey to serve three years in the state penitentiary at Chester, Illinois (6).

After his release from prison, Flachskamm re-entered the stamp business in St. Louis. This was accomplished first with the financial backing of a friend, E.J. Schuster, with whom he later fell out. Then Dr. L.W. Bartel, a local dentist, purchased the stock of another St. Louis dealer, C.E. Hussman, and Flachskamm managed the business under the name of the C.E. Hussman Stamp Co. In a letter to C.H. Mekeel dated January 31, 1910, Hussman was quick to explain that he was no longer associated in any way with the firm now bearing his name (7).

Reprint-forgery of the Mexico 1872 12c blue by Henry Flachskamm and reverse side showing forged moire design and blank margin.

Mekeel’s exposure of Flachskamm as manager ot the Hussman Co resulted in the latter publishing a retaliatory article in the Hussman monthly list. As soon as this came to his attention, Mekeel filed suit tor $20,000 damages for malicious libel in the Circuit Court in St. Louis (8).

When much of thes tock of the old Standard Stamp Co. was sold in 1912, it was found to contain an immense number of reprints and forgeries of many countries. Included was a package of full sheets counterfeits of the 50c. blue error of color of the 1872 issue of Mexico. It bore an endorsement in Flachskamm’s handwriting of “$332,000.00,” this being the catalogue value or the package at the time (9). Of such stuff dreams are made!

Literature Cited

1. Mekeel, C.H., Mekeel’s Stamp Collector 15: 596-597, 625, 645 (1902).

2. –, ibid. 15: 706 (1902)

3. –, ibid. 16: 72 (1903)

4. Kalckhoff, F., Deutsche Briekmarken-Zeitung 5: 18 (1894)

5. Mekeel, C.H., The Philatelic Journal of America 22: 245-246 (1912).

6. –, Mekeel’s Stamp Collector 16: 88 (1903).

7. –, The Philatelic Journal of America 20: 60 (1909); 20: 113 (1910)

8. –, ibid. 21: 310-311 (1910)

9. –, ibid. 23: 307 (1913)