Dominican Republic “Favor Cancels” — 1903
In autumn 1903 the Deutsche Briefmarken-Zeitung sounded a warning against Béla for dealing in fraudulent covers bearing whole sets of the Dominican issue of February 25, 1902, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Santo Domingo (Scott #144–150, Michel #101–107).
Béla Szekula had bought up the remainders of this edition and was now offering some of them in used condition, both off cover canceled with a CDS predating the date of first issue by five weeks, and on fantasy covers with various cancellations. He admitted that these postmarks were favor-cancellations applied by himself. It is not certain whether he used, as he claimed, official Dominican handstamps that he had received along with the stamps, or fakes made in Geneva. In any case, at least two different circular date stamps with the date January 20, 1902, can be found on used stamps from this issue, the most noticeable difference being the spelling of the month with small caps as Ene compared to a less common variety ENE exclusively in capital letters.
Béla Szekula had bought up the remainders of this edition and was now offering some of them in used condition, both off cover canceled with a CDS predating the date of first issue by five weeks, and on fantasy covers with various cancellations. He admitted that these postmarks were favor-cancellations applied by himself. It is not certain whether he used, as he claimed, official Dominican handstamps that he had received along with the stamps, or fakes made in Geneva. In any case, at least two different circular date stamps with the date January 20, 1902, can be found on used stamps from this issue, the most noticeable difference being the spelling of the month with small caps as Ene compared to a less common variety ENE exclusively in capital letters.
