Sending In Kans/Nebr For Certification? What Do You Think?

I was listening to the "Stamp Show Here Today" Podcast the other day and their topic was the Kans/Nebr overprints. Someone on the show said that around 20% of those floating around the market are forgeries and they suggested a person should consider sending them in for certification (at least the higher value ones like #666, #679). Seems a little overkill to me - I have an APS handbook on how to identify these forgeries and it seems fairly straight forward. Anyone out there send these in for certification (from an authenticity perspective, not grading)? I think the folks running the podcast are part of the PSE staff but not sure.

A little study is really all that is needed. Understanding how the overprints were produced and which gum breakers are correct and which are not.

And yes, they are from PSE which makes this a very self serving recommendation. What a surprise.

I have, but only because they were likely to grade high. You can certainly educate yourself on these without submitting them. I've had a couple come back as forgeries over the years

20% is an understatement

So where is good source to check? This post got me thinking...

I thought 20% was an overstatement, actually. I have seen many hundreds of genuine sets but only several dozen fakes.

http://digital.ipcprintservices.com...icleBrowser#{%22issue_id%22:293763,%22view%22:%22articleBrowser%22,%22article_id%22:%222423924%22}

Thank you. Get to learn something new today!

revcollector - thanks for those references. I especially like the image overlay described by Riverside Stamps. Hadn't seen that one before. I've always gone through and looked at number of gum breakers, color, and whether an impression exists from using a typewriter (those are pretty obvious). It's nice to have cheap reference genuine overprints (1c, 1 1/2c, and 2c) to compare.

On a side note - attached is an interesting "cross cancel" I got years ago. Kansas postmark on a Nebraska overprint!

Forged overprints on used stamps are relatively common. Many look bad. The semi-tragic forgeries occur when a more valuable stamp like a never hinged 4¢ flat plate Martha Washington, Scott 556 receives an overprint. Most of the better looking fake overprints are not the same length as genuine overprints. The APS booklet, published some years ago and still available is very helpful. It was written before fakes originating in Florida were exposed in the final decade of the 20th century.

This is a quick look at some reference items and some ebay images of altered 10¢ Scott 642:

Even on used examples, if you look at them at a slight angle from the back just below eye level near a strong light you can often still see traces in the paper of where the gumbreakers were.

The overprints were surface printed, like precancels. They should not have raised or impressed letters.

So after checking, my "669" was perforated 11 x 11 and then then realized the "Nebr." wasn't quite as bold as the rest of the set. So, a 552 in disguise. Thankfully, not a huge cost to correct, and everything else checked out as legit in both Kansas and Nebraska.