Working On Iding Fake Perfs

I have been using Stamp Smarter and the usphila site in my effort to improve my ability to ID fake Perfs. I go back and forth looking at the fakes as compared to Cert good stamps so I can visually see the differences myself. Anyway, while doing this I found a stamp on the usphila site that looks re-perfed on the right of the coil (has no cert)? Perhaps it's not, but could a few take a look for me? It's the 4th from top (2 stamp coil).

http://www.usphila.com/us/stamp/pri...t-354-page-1

It appears that the center perf line is slightly out of vertical alignment with left and right sides. The perfs look too good on a srail test, with pin drift in exactly the same position. When I overlay the individual designs, lefty is considerably wider than righty and the central perfs start in alignment at top but drift to about 1/2-perf off at bottom. I say "Faked from an imperf pair" bt as I've said on other threads... I know enough about W/F to get into trouble but not out.

kollectorkurt, which tools do you use to do the srail test on your computer. I've been printing the image and using scissors - which is fairly barbaric. Be nice to have something that works better.

Well, the easiest method to do this quickly is to simply "grab" the image at the far left edge and drag to the right (or right and drag left). You can pull a ghost image where you need it. You need to left-click-and-hold to do this. Once you let go the image vanishes.

If you want to be able to save the image and play with it so that you can post pics of what you are seeing for others to comment on, you will need a photo-editing program which will allow you to save transparent images so that you can lay one atop the other yet still see the bottom image. There are many options and it seems that there are a number of "camps" here as to which is "best" to use. (Feeware vs Freeware and high-end software users)

I use Photoshop to do Srail. You can get old outdated versions on ebay relatively inexpensively I think, and they are quite useful to someone playing around at my level anyway.

The left stamp is wider than the one on the right, measured from perfs to perfs. I don't know what this means, but it seems peculiar. I've never seen that happen before. They say "buy coil stamps in pairs". What would this do for the usefulness of that recommendation?

In the following test, the left side of the pair has the perfs on the right side of the pair superimposed on it. The right side of the pair has the perfs between the stamps superimposed on it.



I don't see why the perfs look so good if one stamp is wider than the other. I'm waiting for someone smarter to come along...


-IBFS

Does the fact that the sheets from which these coils were made had variable spacing between adjacent stamps? Some spacing was 2 mm and some was 3 mm. Just a thought which may be totally irrelevant to the problem at hand.

You can use paint to crop a perf image and compare it to the oppisite side of the stamp, but it doesn't save a transparent image. But it is probably already on your computer.

chaulkdust, GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/features/) is a well-regarded (free) program that is actually quite sophisticated (many similarities to Photoshop.) Versions exist for Windows, Mac & Linux.

Although GIMP is overkill for doing a reperf test, you may find it very useful if you take pictures or work with scans. Unfortunately, it has a fairly steep learning curve (unless you're familiar with Photoshop, in which case you'll pick it up right away. The interface, and even many of the keyboard shortcuts, are similar.)

If you don't want to tackle GIMP, virtually any graphics program that supports layers will do the test...GIMP is just my recommendation for those who don't have Photoshop or some other image editing program and want to be able to do much more with images.

he is right..I have used GIMP for years and with my "gauge" jpg, ican check perforations with a couple of moves...Like the picture below.

Robert

OK, I have gimp installed. fiddled with it a bit and I'm really good with UNDO! I'd like to be able to do the perf tests, and of course the srail. So would you gentlemen point me in the correct direction as far as what I need to do in the menu items? Srail - cut and paste next to the opposite side, ability to drag to line up? Lots of features, and I really don't know here to start. Perhaps it's to messy to explain and I would understand. So don't feel obligated to respond.

Tried paint and somehow got to do the cut/paste/move whatever to do the srail on this image. Looks fake.

chaulkdust...I use GIMP...I scan a 600 DPI and open it in GIMP...I drag the perf "gauge" jpg over it and drop it and then move the gauge to find the right perforation for that stamp......
.If you private email me I will attach the perf "gauge" and send it to you.

Robert

Uh-oh?


-IBFS

I am not sure that "Working on IDing Fake Perfs" would be as useful as

1. How to identify genuine perforations
2. How to identify genuine perf 12 imperf coil edges

Why are the imperf edges important? In the case of 4 and 5 cent perf 12 horizontal coils, no imperf coils were issued. Fakers were forced to cut the strips from imperforate sheets in addition to adding fake perforations. The top and bottom edges of the coils if matched in Photoshop or equivalent at 1200 DPI or above will match closely, with few exceptions. In the image above the top and bottom edges do not appear to be parallel.

Attached is an image of a pair or coils showing what I call hesitation marks caused by feeding half sheets of stamps into a modified perforator with cutting wheels, somewhat like cutting pasta. The strips of 20 were then pasted up by hand into coils.

Clark

cfrphoto, Yes,yes, I'm working on the other aspects as well. In fact if I remember correctly you previously pointed out that the 5 cent Washington vertical coil is never near the ideal of 25mm? Yes, wavy cuts, not parallel, to sharp of an edge etc.. - very important as well. What do you think about the coil at the top of the thread?

chaulkdust,

To me the spacing of the perforations between the stamps in the pair seem to be a bit uneven. The true test would be to compare the top and bottom imperforate edges, assuming that a large enough scan can be found. Attached is worse than bad perforations http://item.ebay.com/351408311845

Clark