Forgeries Vs Genuine Stamps..?

The main determinant of value is not how many there are, but how many there are compared to the number of people who want them. A lot of specialist collectors collect forgeries of their chosen county; but most general collectors do not collect forgeries (well, not deliberately anyway!) So the market for forgeries is not likely to be so lively as that for Real McCoys.

The exception to this is forgeries of common stamps made to defraud the revenue (rather than forgeries of rarer stamps made to defraud stamp collectors). When the originals retail for pennies, contemporary forgeries are always going to be worth a bit more than that.

Let's talk about the price we should put on forgers' heads.

forgerys should be worth 0, I have a number of fakes picked up in collections and I could get something for them even if I say I know they are not real but I know what the buyer would do with them and I be finding them in another album down the line.

Forgeries won't be worth 0; they will be worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for them; in part as Bamra said. I don't think, thus, that it is possible to place any sort of real price on forgeries. It all depends on what the country is, the rarity of the forgeries in question, and who the forger was (sorry KGB; most of the classic forgers are already dead). As an example; as I noted a while back on another thread; I have a couple dozen Fournier forgeries of the classic crowns of Portuguese India with the surcharges. I consider them as integral parts of my overall Portuguese India collection.

I will offer that if one is going to specialize in a country, or set of countries (like I do with the Portuguese colonies and starting to get into Mexico), knowledge of forgeries, reprints, etc. is an essential part of what you're doing.

You can't really relate the value of a forgery to the genuine stamp. It is not that simple. Many of us collect forgeries and the value is determined, like anything else, by the supply and demand which has no relation to the genuine stamp. While most forgeries worth less than the genuine, a Sperati forgery will often command more than the genuine stamp. A good example is the United States 37c flag convertible pane of 2002 (Scott 3626a). It often found at the $7.40 face or a bit more. However, the counterfeit pane has a catalog value of $400.

In general forgeries should be worth less than genuine copies, but there are exceptions. I don't have any specific examples, but postal forgeries of common stamps come to mind. Well-known forgeries (Sperati, et. al.) are sometimes another example. Forgeries of very, very expensive stamps would of course be worth less than the originals in nearly all cases.

Jarnick and Climber Steve are right "on the money".

I would also say that righteous indignation doesn't do anybody any good. The only think that counts, as usual, is knowledge.

As long as we're editorializing, book, there is a place for anger in the world.

Forgeries created for the packet trade are as common as genuine common stamps. Forgeries of better items created to deliberately cheat collectors have better value based on demand. Forgeries generated to cheat the government are counterfeits and are quite collectible but check the policy of your government. Fakes are genuine items modified to appear to be more valuable items. Again, value depends on demand. Market value ranges from $1 to several hundred depending upon the item and the demand. Counterfeits, fakes, and forgeries should be properly and indelibly marked on the back.