THIS PAGE IS A SPECIAL FEATURE OF THE PHILATELIC EXPERTS WEB SITE,
INCORPORATING THE STAMP FORGERY GUIDE.
Its first section lists the names and areas of 1 700 stamp experts, both past and present,
who have back-stamped or signed postage stamps. The Forgery Guide is an information
resource with 150 selected links plus recommended literature about stamp forgeries.
Please visit the site's main page with introduction and site map.
(NB. Search engines might not display the images.)

RUHLEBEN P.O.W. CAMP STAMPS

On 4 August 1914 Britain declared war on Germany. At that time some 7 000 civilian British subjects were either living in or visiting Germany, and in November all the males between the ages of 17 and 55 were interned as prisoners-of-war. They were from the beginning gathered in Ruhleben (map), then a village 10 km west of the centre of Berlin, near Spandau. By spring 1915 4 400 men were kept at this former horse racecourse.

The monotony resulted in the invention of all kinds of organisations or enterprises, and on 19 July 1915 Albert Kamps started the Ruhleben Express Delivery, RXD, and issued the first postage stamp. Albert's brother was in charge of the production. A lot of different postal stationery was also made (also to private order of camp organisations). There were 25 letter boxes in the camp. Roughly 6 000 pieces of mail of all kinds (much of it postal stationery) were handled each month. Postal rates for letters and cards up to 50 grams was 1/3 d and 1/2 d above 50 grams. The currency is English pence (d).

In October 1915 a Berlin stamp magazine published an article about this camp post. German philatelists then made complaints – of the use of postage stamps – to the authorities, who on 3 April 1916 closed the RXD. Kamps was sentenced to solitary confinement, although his post had been approved by the Commandant. The remaining stock of stamps and postal stationery was confiscated. (Billig's Vol. 18: most of the issue was destroyed.) RXD was replaced by a stamp-less postal service that never became very popular. Following the armistice of 11 November 1918 most of the restrictions on the movements of the prisoners were abolished and the release started.

The used stamps are mostly cancelled with open three-line date stamps. A special postmark/cancellation is shown here (at bottom). The first issues (#1–4 and Postage Due #1) were withdrawn on 31 October, but remained valid until 31 December 1915. The Michel private posts catalogue of 1999 valued the Ruhleben stamps at 20–40 DM (10–20 Euros) unused and 40–60 DM (20–30 Euros) used. All the Ruhleben postage stamps were hand-made, with rubber stamp dies, on pre-gummed paper.

Due to wear two dies, A and B (since about 10 Sept.), were used for all of the five stamps (and the stationery) of the first issues. In A the base line of 'p' in 'postage' at left is even with the top of 'one', but in B it is even with the bottom of 'one' and the distance between 'postage' and 'third' is now smaller. In addition '1/3' stands lower in A while it is higher up in B. In B there is a constant flaw (an arc) in the frame line to the left of 'R'.
the two dies

LIST OF STAMPS
For images and forgery descriptions: click on an underlined # link.

19 July 1915. Dies A and B. Perf. 11½.
1    1/3 d black, (3 000 printed, not including #2, 4, distribution A/B unknown).
        (This the first stamp page opens in a new tab or window with links to the next pages.)

1 August 1915, #3: 14 August. #1 surcharged. Dies A and B. Perf. 11½.
2    1/2 d on 1/3 d black, surch. in red, (800 printed).
3    1/2 d on 1/3 d green, surch. in black (colour of #1 changed, A/B), (200 printed).
4    1 d on 1/3 d black, surch. in red, (500 printed).

23 October 1915, #5: March 1916. Perf. 11½. (The first colour is that of the frame.)
5    1/4 d green and black. (In total 7 200 printed of #5–13, O1 and D2.)
6    1/3 d black and rose. Essays or colour trials of the 1/3 d (28 different).
7    1/2 d green and blue.
8     3/4 d blue and black.
9     1 d carmine and violet. This newspaper subscription receipt was sold at Robert Murray's, Edinburgh UK, auction on 19 January 2004 as lot no. 328, estimate £15. (Scan R. Murray.)
10 1 1/2 d violet and black.
11 2 d black and violet.
12 2 1/2 d blue and red.
13 3 d carmine and black.

23 October 1915. Official stamp, with star. Perf. 11½.
O1 No value indicated, violet, ovpt. green. (A proof of an earlier official stamp exists.)

19 July 1915, #D2: 23 October. Postage due stamps. Perf. 11½.
D1 1/3 d black, ovpt. in green on #1, dies A and B, (200 printed).
D2 1/2 d red and green, ovpt. in green on #7 in other colours.

POSTAL STATIONERY (one sample)
July 1915. Postcard. Dies A and B.
1    1/3 d black, (die B: 6 000 printed). Forgery description (same as for the stamp).

"COLLECTIONS" (All the stamps are genuine.)
1    Presented by Kamps. The 1/4 d issued in March 1916 is not included.
2    Compiled by some German dealer(?). Includes all stamps and one 1/3 d essay.
3    Compiled by dealer N. Strandberg, Turku, Finland; in 1920's? #5 to 13 and O1.
4    These six sets were created by Percy M. Green for himself. As prisoner he worked in the RXD. He emigrated to the USA after WW1 and died in 1981 at the age of 89. Facts and picture by the courtesy of KM (USA), grandson of Mr. Green.

THE FORGERIES

Essays or colour trials are known for the 1/3 d value of the final issue. 28 different are shown here. Only few varieties or errors are recorded. Forgeries exist of all values, but not of the 1/3 d die A types. They are illustrated here, within a black frame, and described together with the corresponding genuine stamp (click the catalogue's # links above). For better comparison there are frequently more than one image in the description of a certain stamp.

The F1 is perforated 10½ while all the genuine are 11½. It is not known used. The F1 resembles the originals so closely (appearance, production method, colours, paper*, gum, sheet size (mostly 5x2)) that F1 is probably some kind of post-war** printings from a die prepared by RXD but not put in use – the layout positions differ. But no facts are available. Some F1's carry either of the following back-stamps: (undeciphered, both). No expertising marks noted on the back of genuine stamps, but many of the preserved unused ones are pasted to pieces of cardboard. Two F1 postal stationery forgeries (all unused) are known: #1.B postcard and #7 envelope.
*Exactly the same wove paper, but on the genuine copies so far seen by me the paper's mesh is vertical, while it is horizontal on the F1's. (Thus the stamps also curl differently.)
**Source: Bachenheimer. – Or could it have been improper use of confiscated stock or/and devices? Note that F1 type forgeries also exist for the invalidated #1–4 and D1 stamps.
genuine and two forgeries
Of the crude forgery F2 I have only seen used copies, usually tied to covers with all four F2 stamps, #6–9. Other denominations not recorded. The production method seems to be some primitive kind of typography. The colours do not match, but the perforation is correct. The covers are postmarked with varying dates, which often are impossible (too early, too late): 15.10.15, 21.12.16, 10.1.17, 17.3.17, 24.11.17 etc.
In November 2004 this cover was sold on auction for US$40 (est. $60). It is an F2 forgery.

LITERATURE

Frank Bachenheimer. The Ruhleben P.O.W. Camp 1914–1918. The Germany Philatelic Society, USA 1980. (This is the main philatelic work on the subject.)
Berliner Briefmarken-Zeitung, 30 October 1915, pp. 436–8.
Berliner Briefmarken-Zeitung, 12 February 1916, pp. 51–2.
Billig's Philatelic Handbook, Vol. 18, pp. 108–9.
Billig's Specialized Catalogues, Vol. 6, New York 1950, p. 121. (This is a revised edition of E. F. Hurt's and L. N. & M. William's catalogue of local stamps.)
Werner M. Bohne. Germany Philatelic Society Reference Manual of Forgeries. USA.
Israel Cohen. The Ruhleben Prison Camp. Methuen & Co., UK 1917.
J. W. Gerard. My Four Years in Germany. Doran Co., New York 1917.
Herman Herst, Jr. The Ruhleben Express Delivery of World War I. In American Philatelic Congress Book 1961, pp. 61–70.
J. D. Ketchum. Ruhleben: A Prison Camp Society. Oxford Univ., Toronto 1965.
Hans Meier zu Eissen. Die Deutschen Privatpost-Anstalten, V. ?
Fred Melville. The Ruhleben Prisoners Stamps 1915–16. In Stamp Collecting, 20 September 1920.
Horst Müller. Michel Spezial-Katalog der deutschen Privatpostmarken. München 1999. P. 41. (For some reason RXD is not included, like the WW2 POW camp stamps, in the Michel Deutschland Spezial.)
J. Powell & F. Gribble. The History of Ruhleben. Collins, UK 1919.
Geoffrey Pyke. To Ruhleben – and Back. Houghton Mifflin, UK 1916. (Modern reprint ISBN 0-9719047-8-2.)
The Ruhleben Camp, subsequently The Ruhleben Camp Magazine. Camp periodical.
David Springbett in UK is reported to own the finest collection of R. material (1999).