Many Koban forgeries are obliterated with a printed segment of a fake circular cancellation, while others, typically those where the genuine stamps have higher catalog values, are cancelled with a more natural-appearing fake hand stamp. Some samples of the fake circular cancellations are shown below. Often there is white space where the printed cancel ends before the edge of the stamp. Any Koban stamps with these printed cancels are fakes.

Not only do these fake printed cancels help identify the common forgeries, but the Koban like the Cherry Blossom and Dragons stamps were also signed with sanko, mozo, or mihon.