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Post by captphil211 on Jan 24, 2024 21:26:18 GMT
Poor St. Pete & Mic, where else ya gonna put 'em? Canada don't want them, though it would make sense. There's no entry for "North Atlantic." And although Bermuda might fit in the Carribean, SP&M is just too far a stretch. So here we are in, ahem, Europe. St. Pierre & Miquelon sc 41, 2c ovpt. on 25c French Colonies 54 black on rose, 1892, hinged. The original French Colonies stamp came out in 1886. The St. Pierre overprint was added in 1891. The 2c surcharge was added in 1892.
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Post by captphil211 on Apr 15, 2024 19:22:35 GMT
I decided to collect all I could of SPM when I began collecting France and French Community. Perhaps the most controversial chapter of SPM philately was the Free French Affair. Just two weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, 500 Free French volunteers on two tiny frigates inundated the as yet still Vichy ruled colony at the only real town, Port Pierre, on Christmas night. Two drunks and a dog could have taken over the town that night, and needless to say, it was a bloodless conquest. One of the first things the de Gaullists did was grab all the stamps they could find and overprint them "FRANCE LIBRE/F.N.F.L." Some few were also overprinted for the season with "Noel." Scott has a long note in the catalog regarding this that manages to whet your interest and say very little, but the gist is that stamp dealers quickly bought up all they could, remainders were sold later in the war at a premium to benefit the Free French, and in 1991 some hoard of overprints appeared, with lots of "errors." OH, and don't forget all the forgeries. Here is my handful of SPM France Libres. I only have affordable ones, but none of them are cheap. SPM sc 214, 1.75fr Fishing Trawler, 1942. SPM sc 217, 75c Map & Fishermen, 1942. SPM sc 226, 10c bistre Dogteam, 1942.
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Post by captphil211 on Apr 15, 2024 19:31:07 GMT
SPM sc 229. 24c Prussian blue Dogteam. 1942. SPM sc 231, 40c slate blue Port Pierre Docks, used. I also have two mint but used France Libres are hard to find. SPM sc 233, 45c green Port Pierre Docks, 1942. SPM sc 238, 90c ultramarine Tortue Lighthouse, 1942. SPM sc 250, 30c on 10c bistre. 1942.
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Post by Ted Talks Stamps on Apr 15, 2024 20:09:58 GMT
Poor St. Pete & Mic, where else ya gonna put 'em? So here we are in, ahem, Europe. Politically, they are part of France and the European Union. So, there's that.
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Post by captphil211 on Apr 15, 2024 23:07:54 GMT
Yeah, well sure. And also Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana. Reunion and I think Mayotte. Lumping all these into "Europe" is a stretch. All of these fit nicely into existing geographic areas, and rightly so. Except St. Pierre and Miquelon. We don't have an Atlantic equivalent of Oceania. There really is no better place to go than Europe. Oh well...
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Post by captphil211 on Apr 19, 2024 19:26:54 GMT
Whatever else we got from French Colonial history, we certainly have a bumper crop of inverted overprints. They are everywhere, and sometimes so common they are valued the same as correct overprints. Here are two from SPM. SPM sc 20a, French Colonies 1c black on lilac blue, inverted red overprint, 1891, used. SPM sc 27a, French Colonies 10c black on lavender (kinda), inverted red overprint, 1891.
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Post by captphil211 on Apr 19, 2024 19:37:59 GMT
This is the 15c blue from the ubiquitous "Commerce & Navigation" issue, and again I prefer to call it the "Colonial Mouchon" after the designer. The 15c blue for some reason was printed on quadrille paper. This is true across all colonies that used it. You usually see the quadrille from the front, but always from the back. We will revisit this stamp in the next frame. SPM sc 67, 15c blue on quadrille paper, 1892, unused.
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Post by captphil211 on Apr 20, 2024 17:58:09 GMT
Alright, this is something I have wanted to do for sometime and it's important, so you Marines listen up! This is one of those secrets of philately about which a few of you will say "Yeah, everybody knows about that," and all the rest of you will say, "Well, why the heck didn't you tell us?" Here I will present that previous stamp from SPM and its Fournier counterfeit counterpart from Martinique, fronts and backs, with details. First the genuine stamp from St. Pierre and Miquelon. Here the counterfeit stamp from Martinique. These Fournier products are also credited to his successor Hilfsberger. They really are not great copies of the genuine stamps, but the genuine stamps are often so badly printed that it's damn hard to notice. There are ways to tell, and the first and most credible way is to check the perforations. Scott tells us that genuine stamps are perf 14x13.5. This is a solid measure, no equivocation with quarter perfs. In all the colonial listings of this design, Scott also tells us that "Perf. 13.5x14 stamps are counterfeits." I believe that Scott uses the term counterfeit rather than forgery because these appeared while the genuine stamps were still valid and being sold both in the colonies and in Paris. The perforations of the Fournier stamps are actually closer to 13.75x14. The sides are solid perf 14. So that is a main and easy tell. If the sides are perf 14, it is fake, end of story.
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Post by captphil211 on Apr 20, 2024 18:31:00 GMT
With the fake beside the genuine, it is easy to see that the genuine stamp has better detail and animation. Apart, that is not so easy to define. But there are three good visual tells. 1. The hand on the flag staff. The left hand of the female figure is wrapped around the flag pole at the top of the stamp. The genuine stamp will show some detail of fingers and knuckles. It can vary stamp to stamp, but the fake has almost no detail there. 2.The belly button of the male figure on the right is a fairly prominent mark on the genuine stamp. The Fourniers have almost no mark, there is a very light dash below a line on the stomach. 3. The fruit in the top of that horn thing on the right has good definition on genuine stamps. Most notably, there is an inked line separating the bottom left fruit from the edge of the horn. The fakes have badly defined globs on the horn, and there is no separation between that left fruit and the horn. Here are two good detail shots that illustrate these points. Genuine stamp first. Once you know, you can easily spot fake Muchons in the marketplace. I don't keep score and I don't bother the dealers because I've got enough enemies already, but I guess about 10% of the colonial Muchons I see on hipstamp are Fournier counterfeits. What matters is to educate the willing.
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Post by captphil211 on May 13, 2024 3:57:36 GMT
SPM sc 366, Centenary of Albert Callmet, 1963. Calumet developed the first snake antivenom. Engraved by our old friend, Pierre Gandon.
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Post by captphil211 on May 14, 2024 5:27:00 GMT
SPM sc 477, Statue of Liberty Centenary, 1986, mnh.
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Post by captphil211 on May 14, 2024 5:36:40 GMT
SPM sc 492, TransAt Yacht Race (Lorient to St. Pierre and back), 1987, mnh.
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Post by captphil211 on May 14, 2024 5:49:37 GMT
SPM sc 495-99, St. Pierrais Vessels, 1987-91, mnh.
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