Would like to note here that Clive Feigenbaum did not have anything to do with the Trucial States stamps. It was Finbar Kenny and Martin Sellinger that were the major players
in that saga. It is at that time when The Format International Security Printers and later The House of Questa became involved in printing many of the issues. This was long before Clive Feigenbaum got involved with Format.
Postal usage has and is being validated and this is why some catalogs are now starting to list many of them. Similar to stamps from the Tuvalu islands and such there is proof of mailings even if just from the philatelic bureaus. Indeed they have been "overproduced" as far as population is concerned but evidence now shows that to be the case with many "legitimate" stamps as well for many countries. Basing on "quantities issued" cannot be used anymore simply because the stamp agencies had much more printed and saved in their warehouses than was documented by the bureaus. In some cases indeed millions more were produced like the 1981 Royal Wedding issues. I have found proof this is so and they were not produced by Format but by The House of Questa so the blaming on Format does not hold water anymore. All the agencies were doing it and are doing it to this day.
Illegal stamps are a much different bear. Nothing like the Trucial States stamps which were authorized by the States they represented. Illegal stamps are "stamps" produced by a stamp dealer(s) that do not have and never have had any postal validity. The producers and sellers of illegal stamps prey upon mainly topical collectors. These people are a scourge on the stamp market and should be rooted out and avoided by all collectors. Some of the sellers of illegal stamps are your most "reputable" dealers. Even though these dealers sell legitimate stamps as well, they should be avoided by all buyers because they are supporting the illegal stamp trade by offering and selling them. Some are indeed probably the producers themselves.
You can get an understanding of just how bad the problem with illegal stamps is by visiting my newest section on them.
http://golowesstamps.com/reference/...l_stamps.htmIndeed evidence shows Mr. Feigenbaum's involvement in the production of illegal stamps but he basically only started the thing like other problem areas. It is now rampant
and for some countries, like Madagascar for instance, for certain years 100% offered on
ebay are illegal stamps. Never ordered, authorized nor used there.
There is a list of user names provided on the site as well. You may be surprised at who some of the sellers are. the section is very new and has a way to go. Based on verifiable U.P.U. circulars the illegal stamps are fully imaged (less any inappropriate ones not suitable for public viewing). The images are now showing up on search engines right next to the sellers images. They are watermarked with "Illegal Stamps" all over them so they are bound to attract attention to those who search for topicals that way. As the section grows, probably more sellers will get their names on the lists.
My advise is to avoid those sellers until they stop offering illegal stamps. They will not stop because even the stamp societies are turning a blind eye to them even though
some of their biggest members are at fault. Should our stamp societies turn a blind eye simply because these "big dealers" support them financially with big ads in their newspapers and such? I guess the "too big to fail" policy holds true for these type of people as well.....
Posted 02/02/2017 04:36 am
