Fake Cape Triangles – How to Detect Them
The majority of faked Cape Triangles sold as space-fillers in the 1890s and early 1900s were cancelled to order. By implying that the stamp was used ie. had travelled through the post, the forger probably hoped to make their faked product look more believable while at the same time gaining the added benefit of being able to partially obscure their poor quality work.
Today, it is these fake postmarks that provide the key to a space-filler’s identification and its lack of authenticity. The irony is that while stamp forgers made attempts to have their product look as close to a CapeTriangle as their time and skills would allow, they made little or no effort to make a convincing faked postmark. This failure now works to your advantage.
Most forger’s postmarks on fake Cape Triangle are copies of European canceller designs NEVER used at the Cape. Making their detection easier is the apparent fact that several forgers copied other forger’s postmark designs, thus limiting the most common fake postmarks to an identifiable dozen or so. What you need to do is learn to recognise the 15 or so genuine Cape Triangle postmarks because anything else is a fake. It is easy to spot a faked Cape Triangle if you know what to look for.
With the exception of the faked Grahamstown roller-type cancellers and Fournier’s creative approximation of a triangular obliterator, no postmarks found on space-fillers can be confused with genuine obliterators and datestamps recorded used on Cape Triangles at the Cape of Good Hope during their classic heyday. See the list of genuine postmarks recorded used on Cape Triangles below.
If your ‘triangle’ has been cancelled with a postmark that is NOT one of the postmarks shown above it is almost certainly a fake, a forgery, call it what you will. Of course, there is the small possibility that you have stumbled on an unrecorded Cape Triangle canceller but that is extremely unlikely. as the Cape Triangle has been the subject of intense study for 170 years.
The Cape of Good Hope triangular obliterator (STO/LTO) was used to cancel the vast majority of Cape Triangles. A study of some 3,500 used Cape Triangles showed that over 79% of the sample set was cancelled by a small or large triangular obliterator, leaving just 21% of Cape Triangles cancelled by something else. Here are the ‘statistics’ from this study.
Statistics of Genuine Postmarks Found on Cape Classics
Small / Large Triangular Obliterator (STO/LTO) – 79.2%
Unidentifiable Canceller (UnID) – 7.4%
Barred Oval Numeral Canceller (BONC) – 6%
Hand Roller Defacer (HRD) – 1.6%
Dated Town Oval (DTO) – 1.20%
Bank Canceller (BFC) – 1.1%
Manuscript Cancellation (MS) – 21 – 1.1%
Circular Date Stamp (CDS) – 0.95
Double Arc (DA) – 0.2%
Unlined Circular Date Stamp (UC) – 0.2%
Sundry Rare Postmarks – 0.8%
Here are three sheets with examples of faked postmarks on forged Cape Triangles.
Sheet 1 – Faked postmarks on forged Cape Triangles – Fournier and Spiro.
Sheet 2 – Faked postmarks on forged Cape Triangles – Spiro continued.
Sheet 3 – Faked postmarks on forged Cape Triangles – Spiro HRD.
Sheet 4 – Forged postmarks on fake Cape Triangles – Erasmo Onegia
Anyone who would like me to comment on a Cape Triangle, please make a scan of it and attach it to a Reply to this Post.
Would you like to see examples of faked postmarks included in this post?
Some of you might ask the question “What if the Cape Triangle is mint? How will I know if its genuine or not?”
First, lucky you to have that problem. The Cape Triangle is a classic stamp and to have a mint example is to possess a small treasure!
The sheet below shows the basic main points of identification for in a genuine Cape Triangle. Despite two different printers, Perkins Bacon and De La Rue, all Cape Triangles were printed from the same plates. As a result, the distinguishing features are the same throughout all COGH triangles. In my limited experience one does not always see all of the identifiable features in every stamp. If you have a majority of them it is more than likely genuine.
