Fake And Forgeries: Stuff To Look Out For

Nice JAMESW ,thanks for showing them .I have to believe most information about fakes or forgeries is already 20 or 30 years old and has been published many years ago . There are all kinds of new stuff floating around and this site can record some of it to make other aware of it .

Late reply.

Your welcome ClassicalStamps I am glad that others might learn from this Fake Guam stamp.

In case I missed it above, has anyone tried "http://stampsmarter.com/. They are also a watchdog

on several auction sites including ebay.

Yup, mudhut, I think a few people here have tried it, especially since it was founded by SCF's own Bill Weiss and 51studebaker. There's a thread or two about Stampsmarter if you want to search for them.

New additions to my collection.------

more additions for Bosinia & Herzegovina-----

I don't have an image to post, but the forgers of the Chinese Monkey stamp are getting better and there are some decent fakes out there that are now fooling some people.

Here is a new addition to my collection . I found the numbers printed on each stamp of the set comes in two different types. Last night found one set in a lot that I am breaking down didn't match the set I had. So combine them on a new page .

Here is a scan to show the two types of numbers up close ,I called them English script and Arab script . Clearly a first and second type of printing .

Wife upset with my stamp buying ,took my last two Social Security checks to place bids this morning on a few lots at a Stamp Auction .These are both fake stamps and collections of fakes and forgeries and a few lots of philatelic literature .Let you know how upset she is tonight after the auction to see what I won .

Nice post, Floortrader. Thanks. I particularly like the Algerian stamps. They just LOOK GOOD, don't you think? Good luck with the auction tonight :-)

Taking advantage of the slight change in direction of thread into "unissued" stamps which can be bought on the market, the following is a set from Yemen, released on 1 March 1950 to celebrate
the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the logo of which is shown on the se-tenant label. However, they were rejected for official release by Imam Ahmed, partly because the design included his image. This was, of course, taboo in a conservative Islamic society such as Yemen at that time.

There are 4 values for postage and 4 for airmail. Several perforation varieties of the stamp exist. These are perf. 12 but they also exist with a coarse "perf." 6 x 12, and imperf.


















Another set which was never issued is Yemen's Inclusion into the UN, issued in 1948. I'm still looking for this one.

Moving back on-topic, what's the difference between a fake and a forgery? There are numerous definitions but let's face it, each action is done with the intention to deceive. The fake is to alter with intention to deceive (e.g. a signature on a document); to forge is to create something with the intention to defraud (e.g. a new passport). It's a nice semantic definition but we often talk of forgeries when we mean fakes. A stamp which has been regummed, reperforated, or a revenue usage cleaned up and postal cancellation applied is a fake.

The stamp below is a fake. The perf. 15 set was printed in 1923 in London, but was never sent to Rhodesia. Therefore, any "used" copies such as this one can only have been faked. The Stanley Gibbons catalogue rather carefully calls this "obtained by favour."

Of course classic forgeries (stamp facsimiles) produced by masters such as Fournier and Spiro are quite collectible and many times are valued higher than real stamps. As you mentioned, a fake is a genuine stamp which has been altered to make it appear as a more valuable stamp. Cut-outs such as shown in post #1 are craft projects and are neither fakes nor forgeries.

Ha! Ha! I like the idea of a craft project. Floortrader's original posted rang small bells in my dimming brain and I do vageuly remember doing the same thing myself when I was nobbut a lad. Floortrader's examples are real craft, however. Mine were certainly Copydex and scissors jobs, and sticky fingerprints everywhere.

TIM-----Got the collection of fakes and forgeries from Harmers International and got a few lots of literature from the end of the stamp auction , hope to have a lot more stuff to post here.