The Master Forger, Jean de Sperati

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“I only want to mention there is one great forger, and he is the greatest forger by far of all times. That is Sperati. [...] He forged hundreds of stamps, and he is far ahead of any other forger. There are a few others who are good in one form or another, but none of them even approaches him.”

Herbert Bloch, a former chairman of the Philatelic Foundation's expert committee.

Chile 'Presidentes' Issues 1911-31

Three values from the
 original set by the
American Banknote Co.

The "Presidentes of Chile"set, issued in 1911, was produced by the American Banknote Company. The 15 stampsset  in its basic form was a superb example of the engraving and stamp production talents of that company at the time.Another seven values (colour changes plus additional values) were supplied by ABNC during 1912-13.

 

In 1915, production was taken over by the Chilean Mint.

Argentina (Corrientes, Cordoba, Buenos Aires, Tierra del Fuego)

France Ceres issue 1849
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Corrientes 1 real stamp, 1856
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The first stamps of Argentina were not exactly 'classics' - in fact, they were crude rip-offs! They were issued by the province of Corrientes, in north-east Argentina, which issued postage stamps from 1856 to 1878. The stamps were crude copies of the first issue of stamps from France, which depicted the profile head of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and to complete the tawdry effect, they were printed by typography.

 

Haiti

Haiti has been independent from France since 1804 after a slave revolt. During its 200 year history, Haiti has had 32 coups and Haiti tops the league in perceived domestic corruption - corruption which has affected its stamps (in the form of forgeries and reprints).

The inaugural issue for Haiti was a six stamp imperforate set with "Liberty Head" as the design. The stamps feature the head of an allegorical figure of Liberty in left-facing profile. It is an interesting design, because some believe the head shown on the stamp has two faces. The left-facing profile is that of a white woman, and the right-facing profile is that of a black woman, supposedly the wife of the president of Haiti, Gen. Louis Etienne Felicite Salomon.

This was the first and last design that imitated the "French" model, as the rest of the issues for the next 25 years either had "Coat of Arms" or Presidents as the image.