crossroads in red ...

unusual find ... on yahoo.jp

45sen sumiten forgery ...

the forgery is L item, genuine on R ...  likely a photolitho .  note frame breaks, and errors in oval frame.  the color is wrong.

this a rare sumiten fake ...

50sen forgery ... misperf

this forgery of 50 sen is unique.

note double-perforation on R

album art ...

poor design corners and 14 petal kiku

corner designs poor, oval too wide

17 petal kiku

publishers improvised designs, lacking true copies

2 sen koban /w kiban

this is a scarce koban ... coarse cotton paper /w kiban cancel -
i-ka 1 Wakayama (eichhorn)

MAEDA 50sen M2 /w nijumaru ...

maeda kihei screened from woodblock

normally the 50 is shaded more to L

this is better print 

5 sen brown ... fake or genuine

a rather crude design /w many breaks and lack of detail

3 strike cancels

comments ?

2 sen rose ... fake or genuine

the frame lines and background are irregular.   a partial tonbo marks appears in SWC.

any comments ?

5sen brown /w signature ..WADA.

5sen brown - signature

as my study advances, I have found more "duplex" cancels on WADA imitations ...  the more common appear on the m3 45 and 50sen series ...   recently, the m3 3sen 4sen and 15sen have shown a bota cancel, with the normal double circle form ...

all point to a second screening of indicia ...

2003 Endo-Koseki study on cancels ...

this is a signifigant collection that all japan collectors should appreciate ... it is available online.
I am surprised the JPS did not decide to edit and produce a monograph on the subject.

the chart below, details the number of cancels reviewed by JPS 2008 handbook groups...

the lower numbers reflect the early period of dragon and cherry blossoms; to roman letter foreign mail.

signifigant to specialised collections are the number of imitative cancels in each group.   the city "letter" cancels are complex as many types appeared, as well as many imitative cancels.

generally, all FM cancels were reproduced, and are dangerously close to genuine...  in each case, the value must be authenticated against a genuine unused copy.   the imitations below show fancy cancels that predate the koban period ... 1876-1899

this occurence and others points to outsourcing of serigraph work to subcontractors ...  maeda would offer paper and screens to assistants for production orders ...  not being expert philatelists, they quite often juxtaposed the incorrect cancel screen to the sheet ...

the study is online via the blog link :"the kobans stamps of japan"

note : group 215 denshin offers the least imitaions of koban era.

a new 5sen sheet discovered ...

.

a new 5sen sheet discovered offers again 25 new positions ... I am appending these to my spiro study ....

historically, little has been written to describe these woodblock koban sheets ... analysis of the 15 spiro koban sheets has revealed some interesting patterns ... I have compiled results with images and rationale. it is also a collectors guide: pdf album pages for each value and anotated catalog of 340 positions...


to enjoy the full experience of CD, be sure to download Picasa3 ... to view the image library.   some positions remain unallocated ... and I am always looking for new ones !    registered users receive free upgrades ...  anyone who sends a signifigant number of spiro imitations can trade for the study - otherwise.

FAKE cancels.

NUJIMARU STUDY - TOURIST SHEET KOBAN IMITATIONS

 

 

USPA Japan 1864-1875 ...

the excerpt is from robson-lowe pamphlet - Riddell  n.d.    interesting observation for cancel specialists ...

MAEDA 50sen varieties ...

Maeda Kihei formed these imitations from woodblock, then transferred the 5x5 value to a serigraph...
there is some shade variety ... also note 3 items offer an ovpt that was unknown until 2012.  see enlargement ...

the origin are the K series sheets, outlined in monograph 17 of the ISJP .

prints are also known cancelled ...

MXC screens ... and rotation

the reports of common cancels has dominated the koban repro-plate design and printing for some time ...
Kristian Wilhelmsen  began a cancel study in his 1981 study ... in 2003, the Endo-Koseki study was signifigant in extending this research ...   compiling and analysing the art-repros  is fascinating.

an important screen technique used by maeda - was screen rotation, or inversion ...   as a collection is formed,  the actual MXC set - or positions can be reduced by respecting serigraph screen rotation.

  by example, the most common bota is the 5-band tokio ...   forms are 2BB or 4BB ... 2nd or 4th band broken ...  4BB = 2BB inverted

kobans ... and trading

I specialise in koban imitations and foreign mail cancels ...   botas in particular. please enquire...  if you have material to trade, please contact me ... 

UFM ... unidentified FM cancels ...

over many years, I have encountered some cancels that are unclassified - JPS 2008 handbook ...
however,  viewing the US fancy cancels on the Kodera site, and relating finds to the FM obliterators Bryan brought to japan ... one can solve some examples ...

the problem then becomes, assigning them to a PO ... or finding them on an entire.  in weeks ahead, I will post some examples ...

1879 yokohama 20mm thimble ... 2 forms

    note the JPS roman cancel shows serifs on date ...   the entire below, shows date /wo serifs ... this can only mean 2 daters were active. my assumption : dater for receiving mark; and duplex canceller for outgoing ...  however, ....  here are adhesives with the 18/9 receiver :

in returning to original nishino study, basis of 2008 JPS handbook ... I discovered the duplex -  since 2 were active, did something happen to the serif dater ??

outgoing FM duplex

incoming FM transfer mark  18/9

it exists also /wo break in 7 ...

JPS letter cancels on foreign mail ...

the tokio JLB or large bota is listed in the table below, as it does appear as duplex cancel on foreign outgoing mails.   generally, sorting these requires some patience and skill ...  many  also exist as imitations ....    when bidding on items, please bear this in mind - get to know the existing imitations.

Tokio botas ...

From Japanese kobans 1876-92

this is an example of a Meiji Tokyo bota and n3b2 nujimaru or double circle cancel ... a.k.a. duplex cancel ... during the early period of the IJPO the foreign mails were handled by a separate FMPO in the city ... in modern times, with routing procedures and labeling, substations in the tokyo district can now handle foreign mails ... the JSCA catalog features the above and a reverse image form of the bota ... surprisingly, the 2008 cancel reference does not go further ... many substations used the TB form as an obliterator ... on imitation kobans - there exist 2 cancel forms ....

Horst Mueller of Japan, is a lifelong koban specialist. we share a common passion ... Horst has hosted a site "Kobans" for many years ... within the bota section, he shows the many forms of specialised TBs ... do visit ...

2009, JPS offered a new monograph by M Sawa on this era...