Anthonys Fake 493 Coil Pair Must See To Believe

Amongst Anthonys very bad fakes are this beauty!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Stamps-4...AOSwCkZZVEoy

How has this been faked?

I agree with alub, when a post condemns someone else's property, it needs to have strong evidence presented to back it up.

So this can be considered a legitimate pair?

While I agree that the original poster should have included more information, I agree with his assessment. Even as a non-collector of Washington-Franklins, I'd have to say this misaligned and mixed-color "Frankenstein" pair don't add up to a genuine line pair.

Aside from the perfect alignment of all three perforation lines the most obvious giveaway is the portrait centering between each perf lines. Pretty well centered on the left but poorly centered on the right. Also, each portrait is a different shade of violet.

I think it is completely genuine, not that I am that interested in sticking up for this seller.

So what are you saying is faked? The "line" (ink build up) or the pair itself.

Are you sure this isn't a paste up strip?

Aside from the mismatching alignment of the printing, and the color difference in the two stamps, I see extraneous paper on the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th perforation holes along the joint line. This looks like craft knife "handiwork" to me; it looks like a homemade pasteup pair.

I am not interested in defending Anthony's, but it looks like a genuine rotary coil pair. Misaligned stamps occur only on pasteups in the flat coil era, but are well known in the rotary press area. As the coils are printed in long strips as many as 500 or even 1000 in a continuous strip it occurs when two plates were not properly aligned. In the rotary press time period they are called joint line pairs and not guide line pairs for a reason. If you have seen the edge of coil waste sheets of 170 you will see joint lines that are thick and blurry. Paste-ups occur in the rotary press era when the strip is physically separated and rejoined with tape splice. Without seeing it live you cannot condemn this pair.

I give Anthonys no quarter given the rubbish that he peddles. Anthonys and his ilk are one reason why stamp collecting is going the way of the dinasaurs. Getting ripped off will tend to take away that warm and fuzzy feeling you are supposed to get from a great hobby. I suppose that taking this stand will annoy a few that feel as if he deserves some kind of understanding. Sorry about that.

I wish the OP had started with a legitimate example to bolster his case. This joint line pair is genuine for a variety of reasons. Rotary coil perforations must be aligned between rows because a rotary drum perforator was used. There is no possibility that the joint line was drawn in because of the dramatic misalignment of the stamps in the pair. On the flip side, the image is not large enough definitively identify the pair as type I and not a type II.

It would be helpful to focus on sold stamps like 519, 461, 387 or 388 without certificates. Another seller from the New York area excels in this area. Look at sold Stamps > United States > 1099-1940 Unused and sort by price + shipping from high to low. I am not sure that Anthony's is in the top tier of uncertified Washington/Franklin stamp sellers.

Next time, get the facts straight before wasting the time of visitors to this forum.

To the OP... if you would like to stay on the Anthony's faking subject
stay with the ones they repeat, like this horrendously faked 534B,
which they don't even bother to hide the cut perfs...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Stamps-5...142429541130

How about their 18.... count them ***18*** faked 315's...

Total : $2040.00

https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_od...315&_sacat=0

Thanks all - I learned something new today! I always thought pairs had to line up.

Jenny,
Thank you for that validation post. When the OP first posted I considered deleting the thread; I knew it incorrect and potentially damaging to the seller. But thankfully highly experienced folks weighted in and hopefully this stands as a good learning opportunity.

disi123,
I concur, this seller has a horrendous track record for trimmed stamps. The sheer number of trimmed 315s, many of which they have been informed of, is over whelming. For a long time I felt they were simply screwing over hobbyists by 'passing along' obviously faked stamps. But the sheer volume of them being listed by this seller over the last 1-2 years certainly could lead one to think that something more sinister is going on.
Don