My Postcards & Covers

GERMAN COLONIES
KAROLINEN
OFFICIAL POSTCARDS

MICHEL P1 to P6
KRONE/ADLER - Crown/Eagle
(1899-1900)

P1 to P6 have crown / eagle pre-printed stamps with diagonal overprint between 45 and 53 degrees.

MICHEL P1

Printed 1899. This card measures 140 x 90mm. Features a single 5RPf green krone/adler stamp. P1 has a diagonal 'Kamerun' overprint from bottom-left to top-right of the stamp as well as a watermark but no print date.

Michel P1
5Pf green

MICHEL P2

Printed 1899. This card measures 140 x 90mm. Features a single 10RPf carmine krone/adler stamp. P2 has a diagonal 'Kamerun' overprint from bottom-left to top-right of the stamp but no watermark and no print date.

Michel P2
10Pf carmine

MICHEL P3
REPLY CARD

Printed 1899. This card measures 140 x 90mm. Features two 5RPf green krone/adler stamps. P3 has a diagonal 'Kamerun' overprint from bottom-left to top-right of the stamp but no watermark and no print date.

Michel P3
Reply Card
2x 5Pf, green

MICHEL P4
REPLY CARD

Printed 1899. This card measures 140 x 90mm. Features two 10Pf carmine krone/adler stamps. P4 has a diagonal 'Kamerun' overprint from bottom-left to top-right of the stamp but no watermark and no print date.

Michel P4
Reply Card
2x 10Pf, carmine

MICHEL P5

Printed 1900. This card measures 140 x 90mm. Features a single 10RPf carmine krone/adler stamp. P5 has a diagonal 'Kamerun' overprint from bottom-left to top-right of the stamp with print date but no watermark.

Michel P5

MICHEL P6
REPLY CARD

Printed 1900. This card measures 140 x 90mm. Features two 5RPf green krone/adler stamps. P6 has a diagonal 'Kamerun' overprint from bottom-left to top-right of the stamp with print date but no watermark.

Michel P6

MICHEL P7 to P12
REGULAR ISSUE IMPERIAL YACHT

P7 to P12 were issued from 1900 and depict the Kaiser's yacht with the inscription 'KAROLINEN in an arc across the top. The postcards were issued to coincide with the new Karolinen stamps which have the same design as the pre-printed stamps on these postcards. Unfortunately there are a lot of fake versions of these postcards available on the internet. Not only have the Karolinen postcards been forged, but also all other colonial issues of these postcards as well. However the forgeries and the real versions can be differentiated by looking closely at the pre-printed stamps. Below are two close up views of forged postcards (the genuine one is the Karolinen image and the forged is the Togo image) in the Kaiser's yacht series to assist with determining which are fake and which are genuine.

Genuine

Forged

The genuine stamp has clearly defined white lines running up the two smoke stacks (chimneys), two parallel lines on each chimney. The fake versions are much less visible and almost disappear on the second smoke stack. The horizontal shading lines each side of the denomination are also much clearer on the genuine stamp. Finally the smoke emitting from the genuine chimneys is much sharper than the blurred smoke of the fake version.

If you are looking to buy any of these postcards on the internet and the image posted is too small for you to make a positive identification, then it should be noted that the fake postcards look much newer and fresher than the genuine items. These postcards are over 100 years old and should not look like they are fresh of the printing press.