Phil Pages Jan.Feb.2002 - The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada

This stamp, as the original, was printed in brown.
Clockwise
from top
left:
Figure 13-16
ganda stamps were distributed to agents in Britain. A few were
posted in the usual way to test the British postal authorities;
some were delivered without being detected. Such covers are extremely
scarce. It has been calculated that about one million of
these stamps were not destroyed at the end of the war.
The stamps (with normal issues for comparison) are discussed
below:
1937 Definitives: Figure 6 – 11
A more subtle approach was adopted for the definitive issues
and the differences are not that easy to discern without the help
of magnification. The stamps shown as Figure 6-11 were very
similar to the original design with the following exceptions:
1. The flower (rose) in the top left hand corner has a Hammer
and Sickle at its centre. (Figure 13).
2. The top of the crown was replaced with the Star of David
(Figure 14).
3. The bulb of the thistle has the Star of David (Figure 15).
4. The ‘d’ (pence sign) is a stylised Hammer and Sickle
(Figure 16).
Once again the colours of these definitive stamps were very
similar to the originals.
1935 Silver Jubilee: Figure 4
The 1935 Silver Jubilee issue was reproduced with the following
five differences from the normal (Figure 4a):
1. The top and bottom panels were changed to read ‘THIS IS A/
JEWSH WAR’. The printing of the word ‘JEWSH’ was a misspelling
of the word Jewish that went unnoticed by the checkers.
There are no known examples with the correct spelling.
2. The Star of David has been inserted on the extreme ends of
the upper panel and on top of the crown in the left hand panel.
3. The years in the left and right hand panels were changed to
‘1939’ and ‘1944’ respectively.
4. A portrait of Stalin replaces the one of King George V in
the central panel.
5. Both the Soviet star and the Hammer & Sickle emblems
were included in the right hand panel. Also included was
the ‘d’ symbol, indicating pence, made up of a stylised
Hammer and Sickle, which did not appear on the original.
The colour of this stamp was printed in a green shade similar
to the original.
1937 Coronation: Figure 5
Similar changes were made to the 1937, 1 1 ⁄2d Coronation issue, and
the main six differences from the normal (Figure 5a) are:
1. Instead of the ‘POSTAGE REVENUE’, in the top panel, it
reads ‘SSSR BRITANNIA.’ The Star of David was placed
at the extreme ends of the top panel.
2. The right-hand side of the central crown was styled using
the Hammer and Sickle.
3. The monogram in the middle was changed to ‘SSSR.’
4. The portrait of Queen Elizabeth was replaced by one of Stalin.
5. The bottom panel had the date changed and now reads
‘TEHRAN 28.11.1943.’
6. A Soviet star with the Hammer and Sickle inside appears in
the right hand panel.
Figure 17
Overprints:
A number of the definitive forgeries were overprinted as
shown in Figure 17, to demoralize the troops on whom they
were intended to be dropped. These overprints comprise the following
designs:
I. Murder Ruin. Only 30 sets are known. Overprints are
black, except for the 1 ⁄2d and 3d which are in red. Examples
A-F.
II. Extremes in World Politics. Only 30 sets are known. All
overprints are in black, except for the 3d, which is in red.
Examples A-F. Figure 18.
Le philatéliste canadien / The Canadian Philatelist Janvier - Février 2002 / 9