Quote:
The original stamp was produced by the BEP perforating number 344. If an individual were careful enough, couldn't the perforations pass an expert's examination?
Obviously, there is a lot more involved in making a fake perforation than meets the eye. Most fake 519s are badly done, as Tom has noted. Forgers rely on collector ignorance or collector "innocence".
However, there are some that are quite well done. I do want to clarify this comment:
Quote:
In order to fool the experts each perf and tooth would have to be perfect.
I know what Tom means, but to make sure there is no misunderstanding for others -- "each perf and tooth" must be "perfect" with respect to the original BEP perforations. Not that each perf/tooth is perfect in terms of production. In fact, perfs/teeth that look too perfect from a manufacturing point of view are usually an instant sign of faked perfs -- because the production characteristics and anomalies of BEP perfs of that era are pretty well studied.
While it is true that BEP made 519 from the some of the same plates used to make 344, one thing that most collectors don't consider is the basic fact that BEP perfs were made with the FULL pane, not a single stamp. Therefore, it is not as easy as one might think, to make perfs sufficiently good to fool the experts. The holes have to be the right size tolerance, the perf centers need to be aligned and basically parallel (not as easy a feat as one might think), the teeth edges need to exhibit characteristics of paper tearing and not cut as with the imperforates.
A good faker doesn't try to make every tooth meet BEP original production specifications. Rather, a good faker will know some of the fundamental documented anomalies (such as known switched pin diameters), and put that in the forgery to make it look genuine. Those are the fakes that are truly challenging to detect!
Posted 03/28/2010 08:59 am
