1943 SPLIT, eBay forgeries

Forgers seem to be very hardworking lately. I recently wrote about the forgeries of a local issue for Dalmatia (see here). Now you can buy them on eBay...

Forgeries of overprint.
Note that none of these stamps was actually used for 1943 local issue for Dalmatia.

1945 ZAGREB, Imperforate strip

One of the possible partly imperforate stamps of this issue is stamp No. 5 Jajce. A few horizontal rows in one or perhaps multiple sheets have not been perforated...

1945 Zagreb provisional issue, No. 5 160 / 0,50 Kn Jajce, a strip of four imperforate horizontally. Certificate Ercegović. 

Confinement Ponza

Confinements and other forms of restriction of the movement were usually in hard-to-reach areas. Remote islands such as Ponza were often used. 

Stationery franked with 50 cents, written by academic writer Dr Niko S. Martinović in Ponza (27.12.1942), sent from Naples railway (7.II.1943) to Cetinje (19.II.1943), censored by DIREZIONE COMANDA CONFINO / PONZA and QUESTURA DI NAPOLI.

Island Ponza, provinca Littoria (= today Latina, Lazio).

As a curiosity: On July 25, 1943, Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy, is voted out of power by his own Grand Council and arrested upon leaving a meeting with King Vittorio Emanuele. Two days after his arrest, Mussolini was sent to the island Ponza. Fearing that the Germans would discover his location, Mussolini was transferred to the island of La Maddalena near Sardinia on August 6.

1945 SPLIT, Letter from Milna

If the sender or addressee was a military person, the basic fee for shipments was free of charge. However, all additional services such as registration, express handling etc. were charged at the applicable tariffs.

1945 Split provisional issue, registered letter franked with 30 kn for the registration as the addressee was a military person, sent from Milna on island Brač (7.VI.45) to Bjelovar (15.VI.45) where it was redirected to Križevci (15.VI.45). The letter was censored in Split (censor cancellation No. 3). 

1943 SPLIT, Forgeries

If you read my article in the Acta Philatelica Nova 2015, you could see that I did not pay much attention to forgeries - this is because they are practically non-existent on the market. In the meantime, I saw one complete set that was amateurishly forged and one attempt to falsify the letter. Recently I have been asked for an opinion about the inverted overprints you can see below. 

1943 Split local issue for Dalmatia, forgeries of inverted overprint. Note that none of these values could exist with inverted overprint.

Of course, these are fakes, but they are not so amateur. At first glance, the overprint looks fine; however, the size is slightly smaller, and the properties of the individual letters are changed. Unfortunately, I only had scans, so I can not describe the other features I could see if I had stamps in my hands.

All stamps have "KRISCHKE BPP" expert mark on the back, which is also forged.

1943 SPLIT, Block of twelve

After the capitulation of Italy, the Main Postal Directorate of the Independent State of Croatia had overprinted Italian stamps with Ustasha and country emblems. The entire stock of Italian stamps found in Split was sent to Zagreb where the overprint was executed probably in late September or early October 1943. Only ten values from the total of seventeen different overprinted stamps were sent back to Split. Seven values were retained in Zagreb due to small overprinted quantities and their speculative potential.

Altogether, only 231 complete sets of 1943 Split local issue for Dalmatia exist. Postage due stamps are among the seven key values. Key values larger than blocks of four are great rarities.

1943 Split local issue for Dalmatia, 3.50 kn / 0.50 Lire, a block of twelve from positions 5-10/15-20. Largest known unit for the stamps retained in Zagreb. Certificate Vilfan.

1945 MARIBOR, bicolour stamp

I found a nice example of a bicolour stamp. The most likely explanation for this is that a part of a stamp was exposed to UV light. However, it is interesting that colours perfectly match known colours of 6pf stamp - so one might believe that this occurred while printed...

1945 Maribor provisional issue, a pair of 6pf with shifted overprint. Right stamp in two colours: light purple lilac (785d) and light pink lilac (785c).

Known colours of 6pf stamp.