How Do You Tell If A Stamp Is A Forgery Or Fake

How do you tell if a valuable stamp is a forgery. Also what stamps are forged the most and what to look out for to spot a fake. Thanks everyone!

The best way of course is to compare it to a real one side by side. There are no exact measures to determine exactly what comprises a fake / Forgery as some are very crude and Stanley Gibbons lists some as "Dangerous Forgeries" which means they are dangerously close to the real thing and can fool even the well seasoned. There are a few website that show the difference. for others you can look here.

https://goscf.com/t/19443&SearchTer...nd,forgeries

Footballphilately, read this informative link.

http://www.sheryll.net/Forgeries/Ug..._Sellers.htm

Our conclusion, - the wise buy from life long Reputable dealers who PROTECT and VALUE their reputation.

If you want to avoid being stuck with fakes, there's no substitute for knowledge of the stamps you're buying. And the deeper the knowledge, the better.

In another place, I've been reporting a conversation I had with an ebay seller of a range of really pathetic fakes of the Indian States. The seller insisted he'd bought them from the Mystic Stamp Co. as genuine, and therefore they were. They weren't, and any collector with the slightest familiarity with the real thing could have told him (and Mystic) so. I don't know if he's returned them to Mystic for a refund. He isn't talking to me any more.

It also pays to study the catalogue - carefully. Take this cover from Jammu & Kashmir:





It looks quite good, and if it was genuine, might be worth, say $50. Of course, it's a fake: the green Jammu & Kashmir stamp has been added to a genuine cover, and has been given a fake cancellation. How do I know? Easy: the catalogue will tell you that the Jammu & Kashmir State Post Office closed in 1894, but this cover is postmarked 1901.

If the item is impossible, it's probably a forgery. (Not always, though. It is possible to make the big discovery, but you need serious knowledge and mountains of luck. Just don't count on it.)

Stallzer is correct,many can be identified by just laying them next to a real copy.If you have a stamp that you question,you can post a scan on this site and someone may be able to identify it for what it is,as always there are some stamps that a scan will not be enought,much like some of the Cantonal issues of Switzerland were ,I have to hold the stamp in my fingers to feel the thickness of paper to be sure,also some stamps like Heglioland they are not forgeries but reprints off the original plates.
As I said the advice you get here will be the best to determine if you need to take the matter further and go and have it expertized or as some fakes are easy to tell.

TONYMACG----Nice cover ,always impress with collectors who do their own research and make their own reference library.---I need to start showing a few of mine.

Thanks to all who replied!

Good Question, there is a lot of literature on the subject. I use the Serrane Guide for 19th century stamps. There is another book published Stanley Gibbons called Album Weeds it is a huge work. Some of these publications are available on loan from the American Philatelic Research Library. The American Philatelic Society also has a seminar on how to detect forged or altered stamps. Some of the forgers did better work than the original engraver, the differences can help identify the forgery and the forger. Altered stamps are a pretty big problem for me, some people have gotten pretty good at regumming stamps also with reperforating stamps that command a premium. I have tried the comparrison with a known good stamp and still got a bad certificate of authenticity. For me I assume expensive stamps are forged unless they have a certificate of authenticity. Good Stamp Hunting 2U, TonyK.

This is a good general rule to bear in mind. As in the rest of life, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Another Indian States example:



Covers from Barwani State are far from common: the cheapest is a $50 proposition, and prices go up dramatically from there. I've never seen a genuine commercial cover with this type of ¼ Anna stamp. (The ¼ Anna value didn't cover any postal rate at the time. It took two to pay for a postcard, or four for a basic rate letter.)

So you can imagine that, when I first laid eyes on this, I was very excited. It has that genuine, well-used look about it. Sad to say, the excitement lasted about 10 seconds, until I compared the date in the postmark, 1933, with the actual stamps, which weren't in this case issued until 1945.

How do I know 1945, when the catalogues don't distinguish the stamps? Only by acquiring the specialised knowledge of Barwani. This cover would fool - has fooled - experienced collectors of the Indian States, who haven't gone that step further, to know when each of the nine printings of these stamps were released.

Even an experienced collector of the Indian States might pay up a solid three-figure sum for this cover. And even many an expert committee might give it a clear certificate. The stamps are genuine, and so is the CDS. (The implements were 'borrowed' from the postal museum.)

If it seems too good to be true ...

I do agree with others that it all starts and ends with knowledge. The better catalogues & resources you have, and the more time you spent on (preliminary) research, the more likely you will spot suspicious material. However, as any reference is incomplete even at it's best, your best tool is to use your eyes & those "famous" gray little cells.L

One thing I'd add to this discussion is that there are lots of forgeries of cheap stamps too...I kicked off my weekend by sorting a batch of Central Lithuanian stamps, and found lots of material that is either reperforations or complete forgeries (for pics and VERY long post about topic, please see http://www.stampcollectingblog.com/...lithunia.php )


Just my 5 cents worth,
-keijo-

SCB------Nice blog on CENT. LIT.------here is my page.

Really, assume a valuable stamp is fake if it doesn't come with a certificate? I purchased on old U.S. album recently. The high value material looked alright. I should probably take a closer look. Is early U.S. heavily forged, or not so much?

more forgeries and a real stamp---

Football, there are not too many US Stamp forgeries floating around. I believe Sperati did forge the #2 10¢ Washington. Confederate states and Provisionals are the ones to be very careful with.

You probably want to look at Varro Tyler's Focus on Forgeries, which discusses a lot of inexpensive forgeries that are floating around. Linn's was closing them out a few months back.

I'm sorry but I have to speak up here and there's no polite way to do it. That statement is just ridiculous. If someone is going to the trouble to forge a $1,000 stamp, forging a COA is just as easy.