DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FORGERY:

-shape of the head totally different with Roman nose and long pigtail; arabesques more complete at corners in the forgery than in the original; "RR" in "CORREIO" and "5" very differently shaped; ground color chocolate brown.

CARACTERÍSTICAS DISTINTIVAS DO FALSO:

-forma da cabeça diferente (notar o nariz adunco e a longa trança de cabelo); arabescos diferentes, ocupando os cantos; letras e números diferentes; cor de chocolate.

NOTES: The origin is unknown but seemingly the forger had never seen the actual stamp and was using a bad illustration as a model. It is important to understand that in the early years of collecting people were often not aware of how the actual stamps looked or what was their colour, except by album illustrations that often diverged strongly from the originals presumably because the artists had themselves access to only fac-similae. Thus, the forgery must be quite ancient. Well embossed.

Bibliography:

mentioned in Davies, D.J. "Forgeries of Portugal and Colonies".