Madame Joseph

Madame Joseph (c.1900 – after late 1940s) was a stamp dealer active in London in the early part of the twentieth century and who has since been revealed to be a major supplier of stamps with forged cancels. In conjunction with her collaborators, over four hundred fake cancels were used dated up to 1949. A 1967 Aden canceller (MJ10) may not be a contemporary fake. Unfortunately, this is missing from the Royal Philatelic Society London archive.

Known as Madame Joseph because she went by the surname Joseph and was possibly French or Belgian (her first name is unknown), Joseph, her accomplices and successors used fake handstamps to turn common unused stamps into more valuable used ones. Some fake cachets, cork cancels, surcharges and overprints were also used. Over four hundred fake cancels were used, mainly for British Commonwealth stamps and it is believed that there are probably additional fake cancels that have yet to be discovered. The wooden cancels were thought to have been made in France while the zincograph and copper plated implements may have been created originally for use as book or catalogue illustrations.

'Madame Joseph' may have emanated from the WWII Madame Joseph Krug of Rheims who ran an underground escape operation for British pilots downed in occupied France. 'Madame Joseph' was probably not the name of one person but the nom de guerre used by this group who operated in utmost secrecy with the aid of SOE. New evidence suggests that the wooden instruments were the work of master-forger Raoul de Thuin and were made in Belize and Merida, Mexico 1939-1949.

According to Brian Cartwright there was also a 'Monsieur Joseph', however, even less is known about him than his wife and as Madame Joseph was normally responsible for serving customers, the business and fakes have come to be attributed to her. The exact extent of Monsieur Joseph's involvement in the business has yet to be determined and may be more extensive than previously thought.

The trade was very profitable with the changed stamps being sold to dealers for resale to their customers. It has been said that the fake cancels were also hired out to unscrupulous dealers for them to manufacture their own fine used stamps, however, that has been disputed by the postal historian Ted Proud. According to Proud, Madame Joseph had premises in Irving Street, just off Charing Cross Road.

The exact dates when the business was carried on are unknown, however, the first use of the cancels appears to be between the first and second World Wars, and the most recent date on any fake cancel is 1949. Three sheets of paper containing 120 different impressions have been found in the Stanley Gibbons reference collection and they appear to have previously been folded so as to possibly make a booklet of samples. The latest date of any of these cancels is 28 August 1915 for Tarquah, Gold Coast, so the samples were certainly made up some time after then.

...
Wikipedia