USA Recent Forgeries

Just found these forgeries in kiloware. They aren't supreme examples of the forger's art, but kinda fun to find in a bag of cheapies!

Genuine are on the left, forgeries on the right.

I may have used the term "forgery" incorrectly. These might be more correctly called "counterfeits."

How do you know that they are forgeries/counterfits?

They were described in "Coil Line", the journal of PNC3, the Plate Number Coil Collectors Club. The printing method was wrong, but the main giveaway was the lack of micro printing if I remember correctly!

Peter

Exactly right, Peter. They lack microprinting and definition. I looked them over with a 30X loupe and it was really obvious that they are fakes. I'm not sure if the liberty fake was postally used as it doesn't have much of a cancel.

What is the point of counterfiting these common and cheap stamps? Surely not to con collectors. Could they really be sold as postage?

Don

I had the same thought.

Companies that do mailings for other companies operate on a pennies-per-piece margin.

Saving some portion of 49c/piece might look huge next to their normal operating profit.

In the old days, this work was done domestically, which raised the possibility of prosecution.

These days, really large mailings can be contracted to companies in countries with relaxed attitudes towards forgery & counterfeiting.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

There are sometimes 'bulk' postage listings on ebay, some of these are rolls of definitive being offered from off shore locations. Also note that stamps can be used as currency in the US prison system. I am not aware of counterfeits stamps showing up in US prisons but it doesn't seem like it would be much of a stretch.
Don

And along comes an article in Linn's about the impact of moisture content on the quality of printing:

http://www.linns.com/en/insights/us...and-dry.html ... Linn's ... Liberty series $1 Patrick Henry comes 'wet' and 'dry'

I have often wondered about some sellers who seem to have an endless supply of rolls of forever stamps that sell for around face but there is fees and postage involved, I had always thought maybe the took them from their work but who really knows maybe this is another possibility

There have definitely been couterfeits that have been sold on ebay.

I have been a lurker on this site for a while, and first want to extend a general "Thank you" to the people I have learned from.

Before seeing this topic, I had not realized that I need to watch out for forgeries or counterfeits in such common cheap stamps. I like to buy recent used mixtures on ebay as a fun way of keeping my collection up to date. Since the USPS has been issuing sets with 10 or 20 different commemoratives and even a lot of varieties for the definitives, there is no way I will get most of them through the mail.

Now that I am registered, I plan to also look at what members have for sale or trade here.

are there bulk mailings using 49 cents?

Counterfeiting of US Stamps has a long history. Counterfeit stamps were typically sold for less than face and in bulk. ebay has made distribution so much easier. Not only stamps but US stamped envelopes have been counterfeited and sold on ebay in recent years.

Counterfeits are made to cheat the government.
Forgeries are made to cheat the collector.
Fakes are genuine items modified to appear more valuable.

I am aware of some of the history of counterfeiting and forgeries. For example, so far I have completely avoided the Kansas and Nebraska overprints of 1929 because they are notorious for forgeries and I am not ready to put in the time and effort of studying them in detail. What I had not thought about was mass mailers successfully counterfeiting common recent stamps and the results ending up in used mixtures.

The mass mailers aren't the ones producing the couterfeits. They are being produced to be sold to mailers (large and small), who may or may not be aware they are counterfiet.