Postal History from Finland 1889 - 1918

Fake stamps from Russian period

E. A. Majlund's Postal forgery of 20p stamp from 1904 - perforated 11½

Ephraim Alexander Majlund (1871-1935) produced these fake stamps in Tampere. His intention was to sell them to the public. He was revealed and convicted for the fraud in August 1904 and was sentenced to two years of imprisonment.
Authorities confiscated nearly 6.000pc of the stamps. Only very few cancelled copies are known, none of type I, and no postal items are known.

Type I

Printing: Lithography
Printed in sheets of 32 (4 x 8)
Clear greyish blue

upper left / lower right lines in X are thick
upper right / lower left lines in X are thin upper right

Type II

Printing: Letterpress
Printed in sheets of 40 (4 x 10)
Dark blue

lower left lines in X are thick
upper left / lower right lines in X are thin

Full sheet of 32 fake stamps, type I. This sheet is not
from my collection, but borrowed from www.eBay.com

read more about Majlund HERE (in Finnish) and HERE (in German)

or the book: Mikko Ossa: Suomen postimerkkien väärenteitä/Forgeries of Finnish postage stamps. Hanko, 1977

Opdateret d. 24. Nov. 2011