Who Do You Use To Expertize?

Just out of curiosity -- do folks have preferences for authentication / expertization services? If so, why? And do you use different organizations for different countries / genres?

Also (maybe shouldn't be in the same post?) - have you ever thought an authentication decision was incorrect? And if so, what did you do about it?

In Australia, I would only use the Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria.
Horamakhet

For the Indian States I collect, BPA Expertising certificates are the gold standard:



and I wouldn't have bought the stamp



without it.

I've seen laughably bad certificates for Indian States items, issued by bodies that should have admitted they didn't have the expertise in that area to certify. I'll spare the blushes, but I've seen a clear certificate for an item from Bhopal, issued by an otherwise reputable US body, which was ludicrously uninformed about a well-known forgery. In that case, I contacted the ebay seller about the item.

I recommend:
The Philatelic Foundation in New York: www.philatelicfoundation.org
The American Philatelic Society http://stamps.org/Stamp-Authentication
William Weiss Expertising www.stampexpertizing.com

Hal

Only for US items, I hope.

For British Colonial Africa, I rely on BPA, RPS, occasionally Holcombe and Brandon. Sismondo, Nielsen and Holcombe do for the rest. I don't collect any stamps from The New World, so I'm not familiar with the expertising services over there.

I am seeing a trend, maybe? Does it make sense to find expertizers in the country of the specific stamp one wants to ask about?

Also -- has anybody ever had an Opinion come back that they thought might be incorrect? And what did you do about it if so...?

I use the APS for most of my stuff that I think needs a certificate. For my Portugal & Colonies, I have used Steve Washburne, for the International Society of Portuguese Philately, a lot. I have some of the P & C reference materials and can generally identify the "easier" Portuguese colonial forgeries myself.

I have a Mexico stamp needing a new certificate as the old one got somehow mutilated (but still legible). I will use MEPSI for that one.

I have a stray Sismondo & BPA each. But those were obtained by dealers for stuff that ended up not selling.

I have not had any reason to doubt the quality of the APS and ISPP certificates that I've received.

Climber Steve - thank you for replying! Very helpful input! It sounds to me like maybe I should be looking for more specifically focused authenticators in some cases.

Expertization is kind of a black box to me, I've learned quite a bit from everyone (as I always do!). Much appreciated.

My first choices would be AIEP and BPP. They don't cover all countries though.

Most fakes and forgeries are easy to identify without sending it off to some native country expert . There are enough books and websites that will satisfy most problems . 90% of fakes can be identified with a scan ,the other 10% like Berlin overprints and Fiume first issues you need the stamp in front of you . There is a small percentage of stamps that need a committee to review and offer a opinion . The biggest screw up in our life time by a committee of experts was the Hawaii Missionaries .
Between Classic Stamps and my postings here ,we hope to cover most stamps that the normal collector will run into . I believe a side by side scan will catch most common fakes .The people here can offer a opinion on most stuff or if we are unsure than someone here will refer a expertizing service to get a more professional opinion .