Original and rare not copies

[Garandrew]

Used by OSS for subterfuge anyone else have any?

[Preppy Picker]

Please forgive my lack of knowledge but what is this about? 

[Garandrew]

These were used to mail into Germany to hurt morale 

[Preppy Picker]

Was there a message inside ?

[Garandrew]

I don’t know it’s not here yet!

[Otter42]

If you look closely at Hitler you can see a skull superimposed. A little hard to see with these photos. Grandrew maybe you can post clearer photos when you receive it. Thanks for sharing. 

[Garandrew]

I will it’s an OSS operation 

[Preppy Picker]

I see it now. I had no idea what this was about. Counterfeit stamps went through my head because it looked like a bad print job but it’s the skull. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

[Garandrew]

No problem there are fakes but hopefully not these 

[Gwar]

The stamps you have posted look a bit off from the original, ALLStamp.net is a Philatelists collection group, this is what is known about them, and an original piece is shown as well,

 

Operation Cornflakes, a clandestine Office of Strategic Services (a CIA forerunner) propaganda operation that began toward the end of World War II. The goal was simple enough. The O.S.S. would influence German citizens by infiltrating the German postal system, sending them envelopes stuffed with anti-Nazi literature. To get the mail to its final destination, the Allies would blow up German mail trains; in the confusing aftermath, German couriers would pick up and deliver all the loose mail, never really stopping to closely examine the forged stamps that the Allies created. 
It was too conspicuous to buy scores of ordinary, 12-pfennig German stamps, so the O.S.S. created the Hitler Skull Stamp, a riff on the standard Nazi-era “Deutsches Reich” (“German Empire”) stamp. Instead of a regal profile of Hitler, the illegal stamp sent a message, depicting Hitler’s head as a sinister skull. Underneath, the words read “Futsches Reich,” or “Lost Empire.” G
 

 

[Preppy Picker]

4 hours ago, Gwar said:

The stamps you have posted look a bit off from the original, ALLStamp.net is a Philatelists collection group, this is what is known about them, and an original piece is shown as well,

 

Operation Cornflakes, a clandestine Office of Strategic Services (a CIA forerunner) propaganda operation that began toward the end of World War II. The goal was simple enough. The O.S.S. would influence German citizens by infiltrating the German postal system, sending them envelopes stuffed with anti-Nazi literature. To get the mail to its final destination, the Allies would blow up German mail trains; in the confusing aftermath, German couriers would pick up and deliver all the loose mail, never really stopping to closely examine the forged stamps that the Allies created. 
It was too conspicuous to buy scores of ordinary, 12-pfennig German stamps, so the O.S.S. created the Hitler Skull Stamp, a riff on the standard Nazi-era “Deutsches Reich” (“German Empire”) stamp. Instead of a regal profile of Hitler, the illegal stamp sent a message, depicting Hitler’s head as a sinister skull. Underneath, the words read “Futsches Reich,” or “Lost Empire.” G
 

 

Now I understand completely. Thank you for clearing up my confusion. This is the answer I was looking for.

[Rakkasan187]

Very nice..

 

I had a book that showed some of these stamps, I want to say there were a few variations of the skull detail but I may be wrong.

 

Leigh 

[Garandrew]

I hear that too 

[gwb123]

I'm not expert on these, but the submitted stamps do not have any perforations. They are printed as a group on a single sheet, while the example stamp is perforated.  Were there original stamps printed on sheets?

 

I seem to recall that the Brits took this a step further.  Because of international mail from prior to the war, they were in position of a number of authentic Reichspost mail bags.  The went about the task of duplicating them.  When a train or post office was bombed, they would drop a few of these, which crews recovered and then put the bogus mail into circulation.

[Garandrew]

I don’t have them in my hands yet. When they come I’ll show perforation if it’s 4 separate