Genuine

Issued 1871 & 1872 Scott #2 & 6 and Sakura #2 & 6.

Size is 19.5 x 19.5 mm.

1 Sen, Plate 3

Completely new vignette plate, but value characters same as Plate 1 & Plate 2,

Secret Mark

Found on all except the 8 and 13 positions of the 100 Mon and 1 sen Dragons

Characteristics and Photos of the Genuine Two Positions Without Secret Mark

The Wada forgeries of the 100 mon and 1 sen blue

Engraved

There are three plates of six of Wada forgeries on the 100 mon and 1 sen dragons: A, B, & C.  Wada would use the same plate and erase a sankō or mozō and put it in a different position or remove it altogether.  He did whatever suited him at the moment. New information about his forgeries is still being discovered.  His Pate A 100 mon is found with sankō in four different positions, mozō in one position, and with no sankō or mozō.  As far as we can determine, his plate B & C were always without and “signed” markings.  The 1 sen, Plate A had a sankō in 2 positions.  Plates B and C do not have any “signed” markings.

Note: All (Plates A, B. & C of the Wada imitations, have the Plate 1 claw positions of the genuine.  Wada did not imitate the claw positions of Plate 2 or 3 of the genuine 100 mon or 1 sen dragon stamps in either the 100 mon value or the 1 sen value.

Wada “signed”  forgeries

Wada:  100 Mon, Plate A: Black mozō – high above central value characters

Note:  Wada, Plate A, 100 mon stamps are also said to exist with no sankō or mozō.   No examples available.

Wada:  1 sen, Plate A: Black mozō small and wide apart at top of top value character

Wada Plates with no Sankō or Mozō

Wada:  1 Sen, Plate C

Note:  The Wada,100 Mon, Plate A example above has sankō. No example of Plate A without sankō is available for this study.  But Plate A, without sankō is known to exist.

Maeda “signed”   forgeries

Lithographed

At least one Maeda Dragon forgery is known with a red sankō overprint–see under “Red Sanko”

Note:  All known Maeda  forgeries imitate Plate 1 of the 100 mon and 1 sen genuine stamps.  Both the signed Maeda forgeries and the forgeries with no sankō type 2 have large and small (tall and short)  value characters.  Between the two states all other feature are the same.  This feature will be noted, but only one state is shown.

Maeda: 1 Sen, Sankō in color of design

Maeda Types with no Sankō

Maeda: 1 Sen, Type 6

Unknown Forger: “signed”  Mihon

The specific types for this unknown forger were determined by the # of raimon in the N and W borders, not by the size and position of the “mihon” characters. There are 5 raimon on all sides of the genuine stamp.  All the 100 mon values have a similar position for the “mihon” characters.  While the 1 sen position of “mihon” characters is very different from the 100 mon, all the 1 sen positions are similar.

Number of raimon in borders (both 100 mon and 1 sen):

Hirose Forgeries

Engraved

Hirose Dragon forgeries are known with a red sankō overprint–see under “Red Sanko”

All of the designs for both the mon and the sen values, were printed with the same engraved plate. Only the values and color were changed.  Hirose imitated the basic vignette of the 48 mon and 1/2 sen for all the dragon values.

Varro E. Tyler in his book Philatelic Forgers, Their Lives and Works, pp 53-54, says that the forgeries of the 1871-1872 Dragon stamps were produced in sheets of 48 (6 x 8) from two engraved dies. The two dies have been designated as A-die and B-die. The A-die was later retouched altering the right upper claw of the east dragon, leaving the claw shorter and incomplete. The eight different inscriptions for the black value indicia required separate dies.

Hirose: 1 sen Die B –  circles in shippō, but + in genuine

Spiro Types “unsigned”

Lithographed

Spiro: 1 sen, Type 2.  N & E outer frames have 4 1/2 raimon.

Kasahara? “unsigned”

Engraved – Most deceptive forgeries

Kasahara:  1 sen – very, very deceptive forgery

“Unsigned” – ABC Kurabu  – 1950’s-1960’s

More information about the ABC Kurabu Forgeries and Vignettes.

Note: Numbers in parenthesis and bold are the catalog numbers found on reverse of the forgeries.  State 4 forgeries did not have any numbers on the reverse.

ABC Kurabu (ABC Club) 1 sen – Vignette G

All states (No. 6)

Characteristics of Vignette G:

1. 1.  Break in tail of dragon.