Facsimilies, Replicas, Copies - Any Point??

Morning all!
Just been trawling E-bay to see what is on offer for older GB stuff, and as usual was confronted with many facsimilies, replicas and copies for sale. These are always of the high value stamps, of course, and the selling pitch is always the same - fill that gap.
There is even a guy (who lives somewhere near me) who states his fakes are the best on e-bay, complete with accurate watermark!
Now I am of the opinion that if you can't fill the gap with the real thing, then don't bother, as a copy is just a "wanna-be" stamp and of no interest at all. As a collector, if I aspire to owning a particular stamp, a copy just wouldn't do it for me.
OK, rant over. Now what do you guys think?

No idea. Just as a historical background (eventually for further discussion:) - and this has to be checked- in 1862 for the great SIR ROWLAND HILL the 1849 issue of the French Ceres stamps were reissued (anyway, these reprints were allowed to be used for postal purposes too- they all too have considerable CV). Well, it seems Sir Rowland found no other way to `fill a gap`? Anyway, the 1862 issues of these french stamps figure in my catalogue as `neudrucke FÜR SIR ROWLAND HILL`.

I would not spend more money on facsimilies than what it would take to make my own. In making my own, I feel I am paying tribute, in a way, to the real thing.

Wadmalatz,
Haven't heard of that but if the French "Rowland Hill" re-issues were valid for postal purposes then they are stamps, surely? Rather than something created to look like a stamp? Just my opinion......

David,

Nice rant !

The subject has been discussed in part in a number of other threads.
Some good comments here;

https://goscf.com/t/10908

...and many example scans.

I have a small collection of these as a branch of my Cinderellas. I have purchased them all cheaply ONLY from sellers/dealers describing them as such. Anyone trying to sell them as real stamps or with vague descriptions will get an earful from me. As long as I'm happy there is no funny stuff going on I'm very OK with them.
Some are very attractive and well produced.
For me, they are not gap fillers as I don't collect the stamps anyway. They are purely and simply for my Cinderella collection.
I guess I would not want one as a gap filler but cannot comment from the heart !

They are fine by me.

Londonbus1

I kind of have mixed feelings on this topic. If at all possible I would try and avoid fakes/replicas/facsimiles and don't want them near my stock books; however, realistically there are many many stamps that I need that are either too rare to find or available, but outside what I can afford. Therefore, in these instances I can see where having an "authentic-looking" space filler might be my only option.

I am working on a country collection for South Korea and there are many stamps issued before the liberation from the Japanese that I probably will not be able to obtain authentic copies of...If I had to choose between a xeroxed copy of the stamp from the KPC catalogue or a good looking replica I guess I would choose the second of the two options.

I personally would love to have the fake US Confederate stamps. I currently don't have any at all. I understand there were several different varieties/fakers of the fakes. I would not put them in place of the original, but would give them their own spot alongside the originals they were faking, or maybe their own page .

Dave N.
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I would never use a fake/replica as a space filler, I prefer to leave the space blank. I don't mind the blank spaces in my stockbook or album, it just means that I still have stamps to hunt down. As a collection by itself fakes/replicas could form an interesting collection.

Thanks for the link, Londonbus1, and apologies for re-starting an old thread! Although I am pleased to say that my old GB contains genuine copies of some of the scans shown, namely a penny black and a 1929 £1 PUC, and very proud of them I am, too!

There are a number of different reproductions by different companies/printers.
The most popular are those from the Tatham Stamp & Coin Company,Springfield,Mass. in Tasco Booklets. Not cheap but nice quality imitations.

I think I may have a few spare. If I have, I will gladly pass them on to you as a starter. email me your Postal address.

Londonbus1.....

No apology needed, the thread was not quite the same, it covered other stuff too. Glad to see you have the real thing. I would also go after them if I collected older GB.

Nice.

Well, I guess they are rather stamps than something created to look like a stamp... The idea would be, that someone commisioned a re-issue...

And in a previous topic Rod has shown a letter:


hmmm... semi-official, semi-private...

DavidR, I only have one fake GB stamp that I am aware of. As a rule, I am opposed to buying fakes to fill a space in my collection. I purchase what I can afford and wait for the opportunity to purchase those stamps that I need to add to my collection. I like the idea of displaying a fake as such but not in the space assigned for the original.

real mccoys only

I had rather have a genuine stamp with faults than a fake.