Fake Cancellations

Nonetheless it is still a very nice Stamp that I would add to my collection in a New York minute, just not at that price.
But as I found out this week, it's amazing what People will pay for this stuff.

As soon as I get back into this hobby, I'm faced with all of this: fake cancels, regummed, reperfed, fake overprints, etc. Oh brother! But it has not stopped me from collecting, just more wary. DD

It's not a nice stamp, it's been repaired. Someone added the whole right margin and perfs to this stamp because they were missing. Whoever did it did a decent job, but it is still plainly visible on both sides of the stamp.

Here is an interesting quote from ST's website:




I'm assuming that's for a stamp with no other problems.

k

Not proven. From a scan like that I'm not sure how anyone can tell for sure. Is there a difference between a fabricated Stamp and an altered Stamp ? I'll guarantee if you put it out for auction it would pull in well over $200.

Bill Langs wants $995 for an example with PSE cert with a fake cancel and no other problems. Of course Bill Langs always wants amazingly unrealistic prices for his stamps.

"Not proven. From a scan like that I'm not sure how anyone can tell for sure. Is there a difference between a fabricated Stamp and an altered Stamp ? I'll guarantee if you put it out for auction it would pull in well over $200".

I have a lot of experience at looking at stamps both sound and repaired and I know what to look for when it comes to repairs. I am 99.9% sure it is repaired.

What to look for: On the back, notice that on the far left side of the image there is a thin shadowlike line running vertically down the stamp starting from the left side of the first perf hole and going all the way down the back of the stamp(the stamp is turned over so the left on the back is the right on the front). The stamp design is scalloped, so there is no chance that it could be the design showing through and it's visible all the way down the stamp although it is more noticeable near the top.
I also think there has been some work done on the top 5 or 6 perfs on the right side, from the back the paper color changes abruptly and the perfs suddenly angle a bit to the left.
From the front the right side (the left side on the back)shows the vertical shadow even more clearly running down the stamp. The same for those 5 or 6 perfs on the left side of the face. I suggest that you copy the image, paste it into word, and use the size function to enlarge the image to 200%. Doubling the size of the image will make these shadows very apparent and make the repairs obvious.

Those of you that previously responded to this thread might be interested in what the cert that the seller ultimately provided indicates about this #39. The APS cert indicates that BOTH the right and left borders were repaired or altered. I passed this one by. Thanks for all your sage advice.

Is either of the cancellations on the attached stamps fake?
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