Lots Of Old Fakes And Forgeries Out There.

Hi guys..there are plenty of fakes and forgeries out in the stamp world...But remember if a genuine stamp is printed in lets say 1863, there are also forgeries printed in the same year..They are just as old and do have value to them..Here is a few of mine for you to see.

Robert

This is a great reminder and showing that fakes and forgeries do not have to be modern creations, The old time fakers and forgers were masters. Too many times I had heard people say that it could not be a forgery as sophisticated technology was not available. Also that it could not be a fake because the album has been untouched in 100+ years.

redwoodrandy..A lot of them are very poorly made as are probably fakes in American stamps...I got over 50 of them and always buy them (if they are a good price) to add to my collection..It is interesting, but some people would not even give them a second look..But I enjoy them.

Robert

Robert - I'm very impressed with your collection of fakes and forgeries. Paul

Thanks Paul..Got more.

Robert

I had two forgeries of Scott #139c (still have one), the Admiral 2c overprint Die II. They were analyzed in the Dec. 2013 issue of the "Admiral's Log".

The attached is a tremendous resource in determining old forgeries. I found them, seven volumes, along with a very interesting dealer, on a visit to Branson, MO last year. The descriptions are of both genuine and forgeries with great detail. Some of the forgeries go to 10 or 12 reprints and variations. They are all in tremendous shape and I would scan some inner pages but do not want to break the spine. I collect the forgeries and mount them, clearly identified as such, next to a genuine or place where a genuine should be. I think it adds a bit more interest to my collection.

Wert - Your album pages are fantastic!

I wonder how many fakes I have in my albums. None, I hope. But I wouldn't bet on it.

Jack Kelley

jkelley01938..The ones I have are very obvious to the naked eye...The cancellation fakes are a different story...

Robert

For some countries, virtually guaranteed (Persia, which I collect, comes to mind). Always loved the phrase "dangerous forgeries exist". If it scares the experts, there's no hope for me!

There are so many forgeries out there of the classic issues produced by the Spiro Brothers of Germany from around 1864 to 1880 using lithography printing and including fake cancels. There are many excellent resources on the web for these. I have an extensive collection of German private stamps produced by them.

For the German area, it's the Sperati forgeries that keep me up at night. The GPS forgery manuals do a good job of illustrating the major known forgeries, and they illustrate genuine stamps for every issue, which is tremendously helpful. The Sperati forgeries are so good,though, that they're still hard to tell apart from the genuine, even with illustrated reference material. If there are known Sperati forgeries for any given issue, expertization is definitely recommended. And then there are issues like the Berlin overprints of 1948-9. There are 5 known genuine types and about 50 different known forged overprints, the differences being barely distinguishable. I'm not going to even attempt to authenticate those, even with reference material. My sets of those are authenticated by the BPP.