The 30 Month Flood of Fakes
There was a huge philatelic interest in the Pounds Enterprise issues of 1925. But there was no legitimate airmail service in Honduras, none, for over two and a half years until Sunny Morgan started scheduled, contracted flights in May of 1928. The thirty month dealer demand for stamps was soon filled by creations of Mr. Pounds. (See the Pounds Enterprise) All the while Membreño was learning the skills and making his own connections in the United States.
This is when Mr. Pounds created his new name, the Central American Airlines. This is when he overprinted more stamps, created the Central American Airlines rectangular cachet, Central American Airlines stamps and shipping labels. He partnered up a bit with Roessler to help sell them all. He was unstoppable. If you see any of the items on this page run the other direction.
These decorative seals were purported to be prepayment of air express fees.
The seals were commonly attached to what purports to be an express tag. A good supply of these tags with seals attached were made up for American stamp dealers. One writer describes sorting through a handful. But the creations have a serious oversight. They all bear a great variety of hand written weight notations but each bears the same single stamp and same fee!
A.C. Roessler extolled the rarity of these seals and tags in his publication, the A.C. Roessler Stamps News. He even advertised that the seals were shipped to the U.P.U. as specimens. Same advice. If you run across a Honduran cover with the name Roessler like below, run the other way.
Bogus Pounds stamp and cover
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Anderson Collection
Issues of Dr. Pounds in Honduras by John Myer in American Philatelist February 1944 pps 191-194.
3/2022