Removal Of A Fake Cancellation

This is a hypothetical question. As some of you may remember, I spotted a #39 on ebay that the seller had properly identified as one with a fake cancellation. Apparently someone in the past had attempted to jack up the CV of this stamp by adding the fraudulent postal mark since properly cancelled #39 are rarer and more costly than mint/unused varieties. Sage advise from SCF readers called my attention to the fact that this item also had repair work on both sides. As a result, I passed this one by. Since then I've seen several others on ebay that likewise have been advertised as having a fake cancellation. Here is the ethical dilemma, that I've questions about. If such stamps do have a fake cancellation, and the fake can be successfully and professionally removed, would/should this allow the owners to properly categorize their stamps as "unused, no gum"? Of course, any collector with even a shred of ethics should regard the removal of an "official" cancellation as egregious to say the least. However, in this case, as the cancellation was fraudulent to begin with, it would seem that removal of the fake cancellation would return the stamp to the original and legal condition. As outspoken as many of you are, this should provide some powerful meat for discussion. Look forward to hearing your take on this conundrum.

Alas, once it has been altered it cannot be reversed.
It is rare that lightening a genuine cancel in an attempt to remove it does not show some signs of the cancel after the removal, especially under UV. I have serious doubts that a fake cancel can be removed totally as well. What you would have is a stamp with a lightened fake cancellation, which might well lighten the stamp design itself and make it look even worse. At the very least there is a very strong probability that the removal work would show up clearly under UV.

I'm afraid that's not ethical. You can't stuff the Genie back in the bottle. And I agree with revcollector, it's virtually impossible to remove a cancel, fake or genuine; the work is very easy to detect with the right tools.

I would advise just leaving it alone. A genuine #39 is not only hard to come by and are well known by collectors to have these cancellations so I would. proudly display it if it were mine and as long as the documentation describes it as such then there is no shame in it. I woul love to see a nice scan of Mr. George Washington if time allows?