Value Of Stamp Forgeries

Not all stamp forgeries are philatelic trash. Some are highly sought after by some collectors.

How does one determine the market value of stamp forgeries?

For example: There are several forgeries of the overprinted Austrian stamps for use in Poland from 1919 know as the Krakow issues.

Is there any guidelines in determining what one should pay for these known forgeries?

If a forgery is in my collecting areas, I won't hesitate to buy it if it is priced fairly. If I haven't seen it before, then it's a lot more desirable and I'm probably going to buy/attempt to buy it, even if I think it's a little overpriced. I never think of the value of a forgery in terms of a percentage of the genuine stamp's value. It has it's own value which is difficult to determine...probably like buying at horse auction. If a forgery is hyped by the seller, and it is very overpriced (in my opinion) then it is easy for me to walk away.

This is something I've wondered as well. There are a lot of forgeries in the areas I collect and I've often wondered what the going rate would be for a known forgery identified as such. I'd hesitate to pay more than $5 or $10 for one, but I really have no idea if they would go for more than that or not. I've only purchased one known forgery so far and I think I paid $4 or $5 for it.

Not surprisingly, the value is determined by supply and demand, just like the genuine issues. A well known forger will command a premium over someone who wasn't as notorious. If they printed many more forged stamps than genuine the value drops. For instance, the Lange forgeries of Argentina Escuditos are quite cheap because there are so many of them (I wouldn't be surprised if they are still being printed). Contrast that to some of the Fournier or Spiro brothers where fewer were produced and the forgers better known.

Yep, and in my case, my personal demand for such items isn't high enough to push my price over $5 or maybe $10 for a known forgery. Others may be willing to pay more or less (or nothing at all) as the case may be.

What has not been mention is how your selling . If you have a single stamp and don't know much about it other than that it is a fake ,you can sell it for a dollar or two ,maybe a little more .If you have it mounted with a decent write up that's a different value . For example like in my collection in Roman States you mount the stamp and say it is a Milan reprint from the second printing and that the second printing has a slightly different color than the first printing and post the 8 different types , then those eight stamps can get $50.00 .
The point I am making is if your selling piece meal with no description then it is worth a buck maybe ,research it and write it up and you can get 5 or 10 times more . I seen forgery collections at stamp auctions go for up to $40,000 that was something like $50.00 a stamp. The most expensive forgery I think is the 2 pound Australian stamp it goes for better than $6,000.00 .

There are no universal guidelines, as it depends on the collecting area, but modern fakes/facsimiles tend to be almost worthless, but contemporary forgeries/counterfeits can be worth big bucks.

If the forgery was done for nonphilatelic reasons, the forgery can be worth much more than the real item. For example, U.S. revenue forgeries meant to defraud the government are quite sought after.

The well-known Hart L. Pierce Counterfeit of Scott #R3c sells for $200-500, whereas the real stamp catalogs for $0.50 and can be found in mixtures and packets.

Real:




Hart L. Pierce counterfeit:

Interesting topic Timm, I have been wondering about the same. Revenuecollectors example is intruging. I read something in similar lines about some of the Fournier forgeries - 'certified' forgeries (however crazy that is!) may sell for several times the real stamp. Can't remember neither the stamps in question or the source where I read this.

Several of the well-known forgers produced high quality forgeries of the early Canadian Provinces issues, especially the Newfoundland pence issues. The good ones sell for very high prices and are collectible.

Speaking to the Polish 'Krakow' overprints, I think it would depend on the source of the forgery. Many of them are printed offset, of unknown provenance, so I'd guess not much more than the market value of the underlying stamp, you can produce something similar at home on your computor.

If, however, you've got something printed typo (as the originals), 8.75-9.0mm high (as opposed to 9.0-10.65mm high), from the same font as the originals, then you've possibly got a Muller forgery, maybe a bit of a premium there but nowhere near the price of originals.

Very soon after the Krakow overprints were sold out (beginning of 1919), Muller got hold of the same linotype machine used for creating the formes for the overprinting. Each of the positions on the sheet is plateable by measuring the relative horizontal distance between the "Poczta", the "Polska" & the rhomboid in between them, so that was Muller's first problem & he didn't get it right. His biggest mistake was in getting the height of the whole overprint too short.

Lots more info on these isues & forgeries here-
http://polonus.org/Krakow/index.html