BCRA forged Vichy 30c Pétain-Laval stamp, sheet of twenty (London, 1942-44)
A full sheet of twenty red 30-centime stamps in the style of the Vichy definitive bearing Marshal Pétain's profile, inscribed "POSTES FRANCAISES". On each stamp a second, moustached face overlaps the marshal's profile at the left; the museum titles the sheet "Pétain-Laval". The tell is the fused portrait on an official-looking stamp, which lets the unpopularity of Pierre Laval attach to the head of state's image.
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Bureau central de renseignements et d'action (BCRA), Free French intelligence service, London
- Country
- Free France
- Medium
- Stamp
- Issuer type
- Intelligence
- Leader
- Charles de Gaulle
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Transfer
- Source
- Impersonated Source falsified: fake personas, outlets or documents
- Source
- Musée de la Libération de Paris - musée du Général Leclerc - musée Jean Moulin, via Paris Musées Collections and Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- CC0 (Paris Musées Collections open-access release, stated on the museum's object page and on the Commons file page)
Bureau central de renseignements et d'action (BCRA); Musée de la Libération de Paris - musée du Général Leclerc - musée Jean Moulin, inv. 2018.7.1, Paris Musées, CC0.
Text on the object
30c POSTES 30c FRANCAISES (sheet imprint under each stamp:) BEL. SC. Jean Vital PROST
30c POST 30c FRENCH (sheet imprint under each stamp:) BEL. SC. [engraver's abbreviation] Jean Vital PROST
The text repeats identically on all twenty stamps. The small imprint under each stamp is barely legible at this size; "BEL. SC." and "Jean Vital PROST" are the best readings. The inventory number 2018.7.1 written at top right is the museum's.
