Brussels Forgeries

In 1903 forged overprints of German colonial stamps were reported in the philatelic press. The the reconstructed trail of these stamps led via Madrid to Belgium. Among the distinguishing marks were that the overprint was that the capital letters were thinner and proportionately longer than among the originals. Also, the angle of the overprint is a bit lower than in the original.[1]

In 1906 a number of forgeries of German colonial stamps, particularly Eagles issues from the Marianas and the Marshall Islands (Marschall) hit the market. These were forged overprints on genuine German Eagle issue stamps. The were sold by a dealer in Cologne, who in turn claimed to have acquired them from Brussels. [2]

Forged overprints 3Pfennig stamps of the Marschall issue exist, which have been applied on lightly cancelled genuine 3 Pfennig stamps. Characteristic is the "M" which in the original has the apperance of a "V" with "I" on either side. In the forgery this letter is very much of a fused appearance.[3]