Prexies & Forgeries

We've had recent posts about Prexies and forgeries, so I thought I'd throw in a tidbit about some forged Prexies.

A significant number of forgeries of U.S. 807 began appearing in and around the Bronx in 1949. They were being marketed to merchants in sheets of 100 for for $1 a sheet by the Barra brothers who got them "wholesale" from the Malone Gang. They have become known as the Barras-Bronx forgeries. At least 8 million copies were eventually destroyed by the Secret Service. It is unknown how many were actually used as postage, but by all accounts they were quite good forgeries.

Here is a copy of an 807 error:

LaSwabbie:

Timely topic. I was lotting a U.S. collection at Sparks-Auctions to-day, and there was an obvious counterfeit of the $5 stamp from the 1954 Liberty series.

David

I saw the forgery for sale recently(can't recall where) Is it legal to own a copy of the forgery?

Yes, it is legal to own and also legal to sell a forgery (provided of course, you have stated clearly that it is a forgery). There are a small number of collectors that actively pursue forgeries.

Ironically, there are even a few forgeries (e.g., a few by Sperati) that are actually more valuable than the genuine stamp!

some of these mafia guys/gangs must be collectors to think of a ploy like this

Who's the "Malone gang"? Were they Mafia?

How can you tell this certain type of fake?

I guess I have a difficult time understanding WHY people forge postage stamps?

If they're forging a rare stamp of high value, I get that part. But I mean why counterfeit a 3c postage stamp. Seems like a lot of work for a small reward.

Years ago, I worked in retail and we never worried about counterfeit currency in denominations under $50 -- it just wasn't worth the effort to fake the small bills. Of course, computers and color laser printers have changed that now.

Anyway, good info swabbie.

Thanks, KirkS

That's a good point, but there's an explanation.

Some forge for fun, some forge for profit, some forge to understand the techniques used by other forgers (thereby improving their own forgery detection skills), some forge because there are those who would like the real rarities but can't afford them.

Forging a rare stamp has always been a high-risk venture, because the rare stamp will attract the attention of experts and law enforcement. Make even just one, and you attract a crowd. Consider Peter Winter's "discovery" of another British Guiana 1c magenta.

If they were just forging a single 3c postage stamp, then yes, it is silly. But most forgers/counterfeiters that go this route are banking on printing them in large quantities and using common stamps. Most people don't pay attention to whether or not a common stamp is real or counterfeit, but they are more likely to notice fake currency. 8 million copies of the 3c Jefferson can get the counterfeiters $80,000 on the black market. Considering that billions of the genuine stamp were printed, it's a drop in the bucket. The quality is sufficient that the average consumer cannot tell. The common mistake that counterfeiters make is that they actually sell them way too cheaply, which almost automatically raises some red flags. Selling counterfeits at 33% face value may sound typical, but that's actually what attracts attention.

That was back then. Even though we have a lot of computer and color printing equipment available at the consumer level, it's actually a lot harder to counterfeit modern stamps without getting caught. There's a very simple reason for this. All first-class US postage stamps have been tagged since the 1960s so they luminesce under short wavelength UV light. That's how the sorting equipment detects whether or not there is a stamp on the envelope. 99.999% of counterfeits of modern US stamps lack the proper luminescence, so they get kicked out by the sorters and the postal worker has to hand-cancel/sort them. That's why many counterfeiters of modern US stamps get caught within a few months.

I've seen counterfeit $1.00's. I've also worked retail and banking. Usually, it is $20.00's though. Now, of course, they are trying to counterfeit the Forever Liberty stamps. That was a given and inevitable.

You also have to keep in mind that saving $2 on a sheet of 100 was big money to a lot of people in those post-war days.

I'm not sure who or what the Malone gang was. Maybe they were part of Bugsy Malone's enterprise.

Good points, khj.

Stamperdude, in the April 27 issue of Linns, there's an article about the forever Liberty stamp has been counterfeited. They were sold on ebay, and said they were high-quality and a regular person wouldn't be able to tell they were fakes.

Here's the link to the article:

http://editions.amospublishing.com/...x?d=20090427

Well, that link just takes you to the main page, you must not be able to link the magazines, where they have to be suscribed to.

Those forever stamp counterfeits were intended to fool the buyer, not the post office. The article mentions my point about absence of tagging. The post office sorting machines would have kicked it out immediately.

It's easier to fool people by counterfeiting stamps than money, because most non-collectors won't notice fake stamps, whereas fake money is more likely noticed by the average person.

Either way, it's an annoyance. While I enjoy examining and detecting forgeries/fakes, if I had the choice, I would rather they not exist.

If all the fakes and forgeries vanished instantly, I wonder how many collectors would find new spaces on their album pages

Kirk, I believe the answer to your question is - A LOT!