I have this Greek stamp with what seems like a local overprint.
Have not been able to find any info on these. There is a dealer who sells a ton of these & they seem to be the only ones with these. Are these known by others or is it something else?
Any info would be appreciated. I cannot tell of the overprint was applied on top of the cancel or vice versa
Thanks
Marios
Thanks. Any reason or experience as to why ?
Not questioning. Just want to know
If these are truly fake, I will let others know where I purchased these as they were not described as such.
Did not spend much, they were curiosities for me, but do not like purchasing items that are from a reputable dealer & not being described as such.
Will refer back to the seller & see once I have more concrete information
I am not surprised, he probably is the one printing them...
Many reasons as to why they cannot be real. Listing just a few:
1. the Greek postal service continued to function and any German would use military field mail.
2. In 1944 there was hyperinflation in Greece. Instead of 2 drachme the rate would be 200,000.
3. The use of Fraktur (gothic font) was forbidden since 1941, because Hitler suddenly discovered Fraktur was a Jewish invention . One of the first signs they are fake.
We discussed this type of overprints many times already...
In addition to the above, if this had been a genuine overprint, it would not have had the numbers in some sort of Helvetica sans-serif font and the text in Fraktur. That does not make any sense.
I have contacted the seller & he states "I have been buying these from sellers in Eastern Europe.The Greece overprints, I am still looking for a catalogue". I have made him aware that I believe they are fakes. I consider this a lesson learned & I know know something I did not know before.
And yes, the overprints appear to be on top of the real cancellations!
As stated in earlier discussions on this board, there is a huge market for such overprints. Those who create them aim for those who are in one way or another captivated by the Third Reich and don't have a good catalogue at hand. They (these con men) do not even try to do some research, as they know there are a lot of obscure overprints that do actually exist and more importantly they know that anything with a swastika or Adolf sells.