Azerbaijan 25 RBl Stamp

I'm wondering what everyone thinks of this stamp:

It is a 1919 Soviet Azerbaijan stamp, Scott No. 9, showing Temple of Eternal Fires in Baku. It is on white paper (not the usual grayish yellowish paper). Scott catalog value for this stamp on grayish paper, used, is $20.00 (key stamp in this set) but Scott prints this value in Italics, which means that most of the postmarks on this stamp are fake. Unused stamp is valued at $1.10. Genuine used stamp on thin white paper, according to Scott, would have a $100.00 value (5 x $20.00). To me, the postmark on the scanned stamp looks definitely fake. It is artificially positioned, and the color of it's ink doesn't match real period postmarks. I would say, somebody took a good unused 25 rub. stamp on white paper (with cat. value $5.50), and struck it with the fake postmark, so it would look like its value is $100.00. IMHO, of course.

Forgeries of these stamps are very common. You can see a genuine compared to forgery here:

http://stampforgeries.com/forged-st...baijan-1919/

Kelump, I remember these stamps used to be common in packets 40 years ago but aren't seen so often these days. I prefer to collect them mint because the postmarks are too dubious. Watch out for stamps which are either "too good" or really crude execution as these are also likely to be forgeries.

All these Caucasian Republics are thick with forgeries, especially early Armenia overprints. It seems the forging may also have been done by the postal staff themselves, simply to keep the philatelic market supplied. Deep, dark and murky...

Here's the first issue on greyish paper (as Tvorog mentions). I'm missing a few issues on white paper.




tOn the other hand, These next stamps are often seen, but they are completely bogus.

Thanks for all the info, I think I'll get an unused one and keep this one next to it in the album.
One more question...the gum looks intact on the back, is that possible if it were used?

The intact gum on the back is one more evidence of the postmark being fake.

It could possibly be a CTO with a genuine cancel. You would think that if someone was going to put a fake cancel on the stamp, they would soak off the gum.

The 25 RBL stamp itself is genuine, it has the sharp rays in the sun and the period after RBL does not touch to border.

https://goscf.com/t/28258#28258

Here is my 25RBL on white paper, used. I believe it is genuine on all counts.