Dove Of Basel

Can anyone tell me how to tell if the stamp I have is a forgery?

Welcome to the forum bigmel22!

I think the best way is to compare it to a few real ones.

But I will defer to the many experts on here.

Welcome to Stamp Community Forum, bigmel22!!

The scan is way too small for us to determine.

If you can provide a bigger scan. The upload file size limit is 90kB. You should be able to upload a sufficiently large and higher resolution scan the fits below that size limit.

k

bigmel22-

Let me pick the low-hanging fruit...the dove is embossed, right? The scan looks like it shows texture, so I assume it is. Another spotting feature for a genuine stamp is a dot in the shield frame immediately adjacent to the word Basel; the dot should span the short gap between the two black lines surrounding the shield. I tried enlarging your scan a bit more, but can't tell for sure if a dot is present. Your stamp lacks several of the more common and obvious features of forgeries, like missing hyphens and periods.

Like Puzzler, this will have to do until someone else weighs in.

Good luck.

Collin

Forgot to say "Welcome."

Thank you for the bigger pic.

Sorry, but it is a forgery. There are many differences from the original. However, to simplify things, three of the common tests it fails are:

-- there should be a black dot connecting the two outlines of the shield, located near the SE of "BASEL"
-- the L of "BASEL" should be slightly slanting backwards
-- the dot after Rp is too high

Numerous other differences, but the above are some of the usual tests. I've circled these tests in green in the genuine Basel dove below.



k

With a stamp like that I would GLADLY settle for the forgery..unless of course I paid the price of a genuine one !

Thanks very much to all who replied. This is my intro to the forum and I like it! Special thanks to KHJ for the image of the real one! I have a couple of these. Do they have any significant value?

Here is a Swiss site with all kinds of doves. Scroll down to start to see pictures.

http://www.baslertaube.ch/tauben.htm

I hope this link will be allowed...it is completely non-commercial (at least to me).

Your forgery will be marketable (even though it should obviously be sold as such). Frankly, I think stamps like this should be marked on the back, but I suppose there is a caveat emptor element to all things, including stamp collecting. Your buyer may not be as concerned as you about determining the real nature of this stamp, and this forgery is better than many.

From time to time, I've considered getting a tiny rubber stamp made up that says "falsch" for just such occasions. Then again, is it wrong to mimic a German expertizing mark, when you are going to mark something as a fake/forgery?

Collin