The Samoa Times Express stamps are one of the most valued items in classical philately. So I was quite surprised to find the following stamp in 25€ mixture of old stamps I bought some time ago. As these stamps are much more common as reprints and forgeries than the real thing, I had very low hopes. But to my joy, it seems to have all the characteristics of a real stamp.

When I received the stamp it was heavily dirty and stained, but obiously mint item (with heavily browned gum and thick layer of hinge remainders). As I had to decide between watching otherwise solid stamp “self-destruct over time” or “losing the original gum”, I chose the smaller of two evils and gave it a proper wash. And here’s the result.

History of Samoa Express stamps

The history of this stamp issue dates back to 1870 when G.L. Griffiths, publisher of Pacific area newspapers started experimenting with private post services. The Fiji Times Express stamps were born on 1870, and as the project was financially quite successful, the Samoa Times Express stamps were to follow in 1877. However, this proved to be not so successful venture and The Samoa Express private post was closed in August 1881.

During the period from 1877 to 1881 seven different values – 1d, 3d, 6d, 9d, 1s, 2s, and 5s – were issued in multiple prints. In addition an unissued 2d stamp exists.

In 1882 “remainders” of the stamps (550 to 22 500 copies of each of values) were sold to a stamp dealer. However, this was not the end of story.

Shortly after Whitfield King & Co. obtained the rights to make reprints (with new stones); in 1884 25,000 to 50,000 sets were produced, and in 1892 100,000 more sets. In 1897 the stones were defaced, but the flow of forgeries was ahead. Due to high number of reprints and forgeries, the possibilies of finding a real stamp out of blue are somewhat low.

Checking the type of stamp

All of these stamps were lithographed. Depending on the catalogue / source used, these stamps are classified to 3 or 4 different types. The first three types were used to print all values except the 9d. The fourth type featured only the 9d value and the remainders (with unissued 2d value).

For starters I checked the stamps perforation. The real Express stamps should have perforation of 12½ (types I-III), or 11¾(~12, type IV) with either rough or clean cut. In addition the stamps are usually imperf / cut on one or two sides. My stamp matches 12½ and it is imperf on top, making it either type I, II or III.

Next step was checking IF the line above X seems unbroken(type I), broken (type II) or retouched (type III). Well, there’s something fishy definitely going on with the line, so I’d say this is type III.

Another way to identify type is the upper right serif of Letter M. In types II and III there’s a dot near it – and in type III it has joined to letter causing an “illusion” of bend down serif. And though it’s not quite clear, I’d say my stamp matches type III:

Checking if the stamp is real, reprint or forgery

And then there’s the question of forgeries and reprints…A fellow Finnish collector G.Kock maintains an excellent site on worldwide classic forgeries, and there I found a quick checklist about determining between real thing and forgeries of these stamps. And my copy passed all stages with flying colors with suggestion as “probably a genuine State 3 stamp”

…And the value of it?

How much is the stamp worth then? If it had gum and it would be otherwise in good condition, it would have catalog value of 65€. But as this is without gum, there’s (still) some staining, and short perfs… A lot less I assume…

But this is not a bad find from inexpensive lot. I did have lots of fun while checking out and studying the stamp. And I think it goes without saying that this item definitely adds to my collection.

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