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I have found there is little information out there on forgeries of the first issues of Korea, despite the fact that they are very common.

The most common forgeries were made by Maeda Kihei, owner of the Kamigata-Ya Shop in Tokyo. From about 1890 until WW1, he sold large quantities of these and many other forgeries- mostly on 'Tourist Sheets' which were sold locally to tourists and in bulk to western dealers.

The actual engraving of dies and printing were done by various workers, so the end results vary widely.

Lets start with one the easier issues: The 1902 40th Year of the Emperor commemorative.


The first stamp at top is genuine- all others are Kamigata forgeries. All the forgeries are the same here- despite the variation in color & perfs.


Genuine


Note that the inscription reads 'XL' - for 40 years.


Now the Kamigata forgery


Note how the number here is 'XI' - 11

All Kamigata forgeries of this issue have this simple error.
There is a second version which is a much better engraving, but still has the same 'XI' error.

Many Kamigata products have various spelling mistakes. It is not possible to say if they were deliberate, or simply the result of engravers not familiar with the language- but some of the results were quite odd.


Here is another copy of the same forgery, probably from the plate in very deteriorated condition.

Next is the first issue of 1884. I will do the 5 Mon last, as I lack a genuine copy to show.

The 5 & 10 Mon were the only values postally used. The high values were only used for revenue purposes.


The first stamp at top is genuine- all others are Kamigata products.


Genuine

For the 10 Mon, Kamigata produced 5 different versions. The first was very crude, and he improved until the 5th (of which I do not have a copy) was an excellent imitation.


Here is the earliest version of Kamigata forgery- Type A.
Note the lack of shade lines in the circle and the badly formed 'C' of 'Corean'.


Forgery Type B.
The shade lines in the circle are too coarse and the Yin Yang in the center is badly made.


Type C is a great improvement, but the 'C' of 'Corean' is almost closed making it appear as 'OOREAN' and the '10' is still crudely drawn.


Type D is a further improvement, however the '10 Mn' is still badly formed and the lower left Korean character that looks like a man with long arms has the 'arms' off center.

The final type- which I do not have a copy of- is very good but can be identified by the 'S' of the right hand 'POST'. The 'S' is badly formed and the bottom curve is too long.

Both the above stamps- the Jubilee and the 10 Mon- are shown by Varo Tyler in his 'Focus on Forgeries' column in Linn's Stamp News.

Next is the 25 Mon issue.


I assume there are 5 different versions of the Kamigata forgery, but I only have 2 different at this point.


The genuine. Look at the Rosette that separates the Korean inscription and the Japanese inside the circle. The shape of this is the easiest way to spot the forgeries.


One of the crude forgeries. The Rosette is simply an 'X' with dots.


One the good forgeries. But note 'OOREAN'

Most of the better forgeries are cancelled with the 5 circle cancel. This is an easy giveaway, as there was no such cancel in the genuine.

There still must be a better Kamigata product, but I am stll missing it, and have no idea how it looks.

Next is the 50 Mon issue.


The first stamp is genuine. I can show 4 of the 5 different Kamigata forgeries.


The genuine.


First crude forgery Type A.
Note how 'COREAN POST' is almost unreadable.


Next crude one Type B.
Easy to spot as the country name is 'COHEAN'


Better, but the Yin Yang is not symmetrical, and '50' is badly formed.


If this was a clearer printing in the right shade, it would be a difficult forgery to spot. But the 'M' of Mon (Mn at bottom right) is lopsided.

Now the high value of the set - the 100 Mon.


Again the first stamp is genuine & I am fortunate to have examples of all 5 different Kamigata forgeries


Genuine. The pink background color is reproduced only on the better forgeries.
The main areas to check are the Yin Yang and the Korean character at 5 o'clock.


The first of the forgeries- Type A
Note the badly lopsided Yin Yang and the Korean character at 5 o'clock is incorrectly formed.


Type B was supposed to be an improvement
But the Yin Yang is still lopsided and now the Korean character at 5 o'clock that resembled a monkey mask in forgery A is now missing the side bars. A spelling mistake in the Korean


Type C is better, but while the Korean inscription is correct, now the English is wrong
'COAEAN' plus the right side of the Yin Yang has a blue outline to the outer circle.


Tyde D is another improvement, however the 'Monkey Mask' has returned at 5 o'clock, and the blue outline on the Yin Yang is still there.


Finally he got it right with Type E.
This is an excellent forgery- the colors are close, the perfs are good- just the cancel is wrong.

In the next post I will show more details to identify this Type E 100 Mon.

Some more details of the last 100 Mon Forgery Type E:

Check these details of the Genuine:





Now the same areas on the forgery:


Notice the extension at top left of the square character- The genuine has a rounded corner here.


The forgeries 'E' center bar is too long and in the 'A' the crossbar is placed too high.

Unfortunately, these details are too small to see in a typical scan on eBay

The 2 colors of this stamp had the printers confused at times:shock:


Here is a Type C where the blue design was printed first, and the pink background printed on top- making for a strange looking variety.

Also at times, the pink background is so light it appears to be missing.

Now the low value of the set- the 5 Mon.

While sorting these out, I realized that my 'Genuine' was actually one of the better forgeries. So this will be without a genuine copy to compare with.


All Kamigata forgeries. I believe I am still missing the last type of forgery.


Type A- The white part of the center of the Yin Yang is too small and off center.


Type B- Look at the slash (/) below the small 'n' in 'Mn' at bottom right.
It extends quite far below the 'M', when it should end level with the bottom of the 'M'.


Type C- Look at the '5' at bottom left. It is too short & thick and has a small extension at the top of the vertical.


Type D- Very good, however the top bar of the '5' slopes upwards towards the top right.

It is also unusual in being mint with gum, however it is on the same cheap wove paper as Type C.

There is still Type E which I lack. On this the '5' is correctly formed- I will have to find a copy before giving more details.
I only have some low resolution scans which are not good enough.

A few notes on the above 1884 set:

- At the same time as they were issued, there was rioting against the Japanese occupation. The post office building was ransacked, and large quantities of sheets were simply tossed into the streets This is why the higher values were never issued.

- Most postal cancels on the 5 & 10 Mon will be forged.

- There is a 1962 handbook on all these forgeries by Brady & Tyler, however I do not have it & have never seen it. I have called the forgeries Type A-B-C-D-E which was the system used in the handbook, but my designations may not correspond with theirs.

Next will be the 1895 issue- however I need a bit of time to finish my sorting & scanning.

Hopefully, this is clear and easy to use.

Mike -- Let me interrupt this learning in order to just say thank you very much for preparing these posts! You're an excellent teacher, and this thread is going to prove very helpful to those who need to identify these stamps.

What a great way to kick off the New Year!

Thanks again,

-- Dave

Thanks for a very informative post. Superb with high res images. Looking forward to the next part