German Essays Revisited

Some DDR cinderellas posing as 2 Year Plan essays were shown and discussed in an old SCF thread from June 27, 2015 titled "German essays". Today, I received an ebay lot from the U.K. which was supposed to be a complete set of 14 of these labels.

On initial examination, I thought that they did not look right. The paper is too bright. Examination with long wave UV light confirmed my suspicion. Examination under 10x magnification shows that they are color laser prints, with the signature grid pattern within the colored areas. The originals are printed by typography.

Since the cost of these was very cheap, I don't feel bad about the transaction. I just wonder about the seller and the "craftsman" who made them.

Hello bookbndrbob!

Normally when are copies, the seller add a note about them as: "for reference" and/or "copy", obviously the price is cheap in some cases; if the dealer not mentioned this, I think that the sale was with bad intention or he did not know it's fake, maybe you should contact him to see his reaction.

Regards!
Rodolfo

Rodolfo, thanks for your response. The seller's description was, " Germany - proofs/reprints??? imperf on on white paper attractive don't know what they are"

The description is questionable, I think. Disowning knowledge is a common seller's tactic, in my experience. I have bought some nice forgeries at cheap prices from "unknowing" dealers. However, I can't read minds, and I don't assume dishonesty on the seller's part.

I looked at his other items for sale to gain a better perspective. His items seem to be accurately described and reasonably priced...which is much better than most on ebay.