Fake Egyptian cancel of Tripoli on 2 Piastres yellow

fig 1

fig 2

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Fig 1

Fig 2

Fig 3

Lately I have been able to observe a fake cancel very interesting, imitating the postmark used by the Egyptian Post Office in Tripoli. In fact I did not know hitherto forgery postmarks imitating those that the Egyptian Postal Administration had distributed to offices opened in 1870 on the Syrian coast.
For those who have had the goodness to buy and read my modest catalog of “The Foreign Post Offices Cancels In Lebanon 1845-1914”, in the section dedicated to Egyptian offices, I affirmed that their period of operation was quite short: from late June 1870 to February 1872. The causes of their closure can be attributed respectively to the cost of the service too expensive, the competition with the most experienced postal administrations of Austria, France and Russia, and not least the pressure made by the Ottoman government which Egypt was nominally a vassal and to which was officially prohibited the prerogative of postal transport between locality of the Sublime Porte Empire. I do not hide that when I saw a stamp of 2 Piastres 1872 issue in the sales catalog of a famous auction house in Switzerland, I had a moment of “panic”, due to the fact that the date of postmark was 1876 (fig 1). This in open disagreement with what I wrote in the catalog. But through a more analysis …. I had a sigh of relief. Compared with a specimen of 5 Piastres 1872 issue, that the lamented Peter Smith had sold long ago (fig 2) and a 1 Piastre 1867 issue, found on the market (fig 3), I could observe the blatant differences between the two postmarks that are clearly visible even to the less experienced.
I really hope that the unwary buyer does not expose them in an exhibition, would lose many valuable points.