I’m trying to determine whether an item was a fake intended to deceive and avoid the tax, or a facimile produced after the tax expired, and also the story behind it. My opinion leans toward the latter, but I’ve not found any articles on it.

First, some examples of genuine RB11:

RB11a – paper has blue silk threads.

RB11b – No silk threads, watermarked 191R

RB11c – Rouletted 5

I recall having seen crude fakes/facsimiles in imperforate multiples in an auction balance lot at one time. Richard Friedberg has an example in his inventory:

https://www.friedbergstamps.com/cat…316a2ad19926

My thought is facsimile rather than fake, as it is missing the wording “U.S. INTER. REV.” and “PROPRIETARY” around the portrait oval. If the intent was to deceive, wouldn’t the creators have included the wording?

Fast forward to the Stateline MSDA show this past weekend, where I was offerend the following stamp, which is a similar design as the above, but fully perforated. This is the first perforated example I have seen, and appears to be on different paper.

For a second I thought it might be a college/training stamp, but it’s not listed in the Drummond catalogue.

Thoughts?