Possible Fakes?

Essayk, I'd like to read about the process involved in determine the status of imperf'ed banknotes. Can you direct us to a web site or publication available on the net with any write-ups on that? It would be interesting to read. Thanks!

Regarding the CSA #8 (old Scott Catalog number #207) facsimile - here's the artwork from the Dietz card, which was copied by Tatham/Tasco to make their facsimiles, and probably copied by others too.




Also, for any lurkers in the balcony - this CSA stamp and some others are among the easy ones to check for authenticity because they were engraved (intaglio) stamps, so on genuine stamps the ink is raised and the surrounding white areas are often impressed into the stamp paper. Tilt the stamp in an angled light source to see the raised ink, and look at the back of the stamp to see if the intaglio design can be seen.

Oh, and the magazine article quoted above mentions that "a set of sheets of 25 [Springfield facsimiles] are known". They are not that rare. I own several sheets, picked up from different sources. However not all sheets of 25 being offered are "genuine" Springfields. One popular seller recently had a genuine set on ebay, but at what I thought was a really high price.

Here's a couple similar banknotes I posted about a year ago wondering what they were:

The stamp on the left was clearly trimmed, there are remnants of perforations visible on all four sides. The stamp on the right was probably a straddle margin example with a wide right margin as well.

Good question, Al, I'd like to read about it too. But I don't have any references for that, and neither do the experts I checked with, one of whom works for Scott. A great deal of this may have happened in direct conversations, but until some further digging is done we won't know for sure. I was a part of those conversations in the 80s and early 90s, but had stepped out of the hobby for a while before it came to a head. So, give me some time and I will see what I can find out.

Thanks essayk! That would be great. Just playing devils advocate, how was it determine 100+ yrs. after the fact that any sheets or part of a sheet, was missed in the perforation process? The production process in the 19th. century, based on some articles,was a bit slip-shod., at least compared to todays methods, yet modern issues have many examples of errors slipping through the system; imperfs. just being one error example. I don't doubt that the mint examples in the PF data base could be essays/proofs, but wonder how all could be classed as such--especially used examples. I'm not disputing the experts nor there opinion, I'd just like to understand how they arrived at that decission--what factors weighed in reaching their conclusion etc.---always looking to learn more! I'm sure others would be interested in knowing too! .

Yes! That would be just grand EssayK!