N. Imperato

Nino Imperato (born c. 1890s),[1] normally known just as N. Imperato, was a stamp forger based in Genoa, Italy in the early 1920s.

Like Francois Fournier, Imperato promoted his forgeries as facsimiles available to the collector at a fraction of the cost of the real thing. His house journal, Il-Fac-simile, went through at least nineteen editions between 1920 and 1922.[2] Amongst other content the journal included two short articles by fellow forger (or distributor of forgeries) Angelo Panelli.

Work

Forgeries were produced of a wide range of stamps, including:[2]

  • Italian occupation of Austria - 1918 issue overprinted Venezia Giulia and Venezia Tridentina.
  • Brazil issues of 1850.
  • Eritrea stamps of 1892.
  • Honduras issue of 1898.
  • Italian offices in the Turkish Empire, stamps of 1908.
  • Spain Don Quixote commemoratives of 1905.
  • Sicily Neapolitan Provinces stamps of 1861.
  • British occupation of Batum 1919.

Many other were offered too but it is thought that they had actually been produced years earlier by Erasmo Oneglia of Turin.[2] Robson Lowe and Carl Walske speculate in their book on Ongelia that he retired around 1920[3] and it may be around then that Imperato acquired his stock of Oneglia forgeries.[4]

Notes and References
  1. Lowe & Walske state Imperato said his mother was 52 in 1920, p. 31.
  2. Tyler, Varro E. Philatelic Forgers: Their Lives and Works. Revised edition. Sidney, Ohio: Linn's Stamp News, 1991, pp.57-58. ISBN 0-940403-37-4
  3. Lowe, Robson & Carl Walske. The Oneglia Engraved Forgeries Commonly Attributed to Angelo Panelli. Limassol, Cyprus: James Bendon Ltd., 1996, p.22. ISBN 9963-579-73-6
  4. Lowe & Walkse, p.31.


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