30th November 2024
Firstly, after a small flurry of replies to our adverts in the philatelic magazines, a warm welcome to old and new collectors of the French Colonies. If you’re reading this for the first time and need any help with ordering etc don’t hesitate to give us a ring or an email, wherever you are in the world.

Since our last update 10 days ago, we’ve kept our noses to the grindstone and have made good additions to the following Colonies. They are Algeria, French Equatorial Africa, Gabon, Indo-Chinese Post Offices in China, Canton, Chungking, Hoihow, Kwangchow, Mengtsz, Pakhoi, Yunnanfu, French Sudan, Upper Senegal & Niger, Senegambia & Niger as well some good inroads into our stocks of LEBANON, sadly much in the news in these present times.

Once again we’ve added to our illustrated lists of the Special Stamps as well as the Space-fillers sections. One item in particular, I found of interest was a dangerously skilful forgery of the New Caledonia Airmail Pair (SG.183/184) in absolutely superb unmounted mint condition. Unlike the fairly crude replicas you can buy from some stamp shops for a few pounds, these are quite stunning items, as you will see in our space-filler section. In such condition, the true stamps would be in the region of £1000 or more.

I cannot condone nor encourage forgeries but they do fill spaces for issues that one can probably never find, let alone afford to buy. On that note, I’ve put in a number of cards of the infamous Fournier forgeries of the tablet types which still abound in many collections and, unfortunately, on some well-known internet auction sites, sometimes being offered as normals. Do be careful of these and once you have seen a few they are actually fairly easy to spot. Fortunately the French Colony issues in general are pretty honest and genuine and shouldn’t deter you from completing a collection.    Terry Garcia.

Next update: 10th December 2024