Forgeries Of Diamond Jubilee Issue

These are offered as forgeries with unknown date or origin they are currently on a well known auction site with bidding up to approx. $350.00 at present.
Are these really collectable?
I'm amazed they're even legal.

Cheers, Bill

Truly a mystery to me why the ridiculous bids.

It's over $400.00 now.
I can see a novice (hey! "that's me") collector being fooled by one of these.
These are unmarked as forgeries and should be illegal the same as coin's are, even illegal to own.

Cheers, Bill

The same seller - based in Greece - has four different lots

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...&_sacat=3478

His/hers are much better than the UK-offered set below them.

Should his be reported to ebay? I can't believe this is acceptable business practice. I can imagine someone finding these fakes 20 yrs from now in an Estate. Someone will be up for a big surprise.

Not a lawyer, but would think that if they are being advertised as forgeries then would be legal.

Purely a guess, but maybe the potential buyers intend to not advertise them as such for resale.

The link posted doesn't work now, maybe the seller got delisted.

The set posted by the OP is 100% contrary to ebay rules of course, which states reproductions must be clearly and indelibly marked as such.

I think I know who the seller is, as I made the mistake purchasing some "Nova Scotia forgeries of unknown origin" from him. He plays dumb, but probably knows exactly where they're coming from. I wouldn't be surprised if he has them printed to order. I consider any professional dealer peddling this garbage a crook. Fool me once, shame on you etc.

The colour reproduction of the Jubilees is good enough to be deceptive, especially if the scan is lo-res. The dead giveaway comes when one examines them in person:

1) they are not engravings,
2) multi-colour pixellation, from the printer cartridges, is readily seen under a loupe.

I have seen smaller dealers being fooled by these modern repros recently as well.

I found these stamps being sold as genuine at the moment, item number 334129308080 on a popular bidding site. Seller is selling the $2 to $5 each listed as MNH no pictures of the backs. He is also from Greece but just a different account. Last week he was selling a Hawker air post and an inverted as real mnh among other rare Newfoundland air post. I almost was fooled into bidding on a 20c jubilee mnh before I found the fake air post stamps. Looked in his sales history and found he had sold different copies at least 2 other times. Each item was reported both online and by phone call. This week he is selling the remainder of the set probably same as posted above and bids are upwards of $100 CAD I reported these as well but auctions are still going. Some buyers are going to be paying for expensive copies. Hopefully the buyers can find out before their time is up and request their money back from the site . That might be the only way they take reporting of fakes seriously if they are forced to cough up the refund.

Roger - it's all greek to me but I will hazard a guess:

Clueless buyers?! Especially in the listings which clearly state they are forgeries...

Or, perhaps shill bidding?

John

This fellow from Athens Greece just picked up $1271.44 USD for 4 fake jubilees by listing them as MNH. He wasnt getting enough posting them as forgeries so he just decided to post them as real. He refused to reply to my email requesting pictures of the back and better quality pictures. 334129307529

Don't overlook the Greater Fool theory. It is a powerful motivator. After all, if I pay $255 for this piece of junk, surely there is a greater fool that will pay me $300 for it.

The $2 sold for $255 and the $3 sold for $356.12.

One should make sure that they are engraved stamps when buying original ones.

These are a plague on the stamp community, as a new collector this stopped me in my tracks.
I'm about half way finished the Admiral series but when I saw these I stopped collecting and have not bought another stamp since I came across these last March.
For the seasoned collector this may not be such a big thing but if you can't make a new collector comfortable in purchasing stamps who are you going to sell to in the future.
I just can't afford to spend 2 or 3 hundred dollars on a stamp to find out a year later it's a fake.

Cheers, Bill

I hear that, Bill!

Some suggestions:

1. If you don't have the requisite knowledge, only purchase from a reputable dealer with a "good" certificate. I honestly don't know why anyone would purchase something over $500 (my personal limit) without a valid certificate. Or, in the alternative a dealer who will extend a return privilege to account for submission of an item for a certificate.

2. If the price is too good to be true, chances are it is a louse that should be deposited in the nearest rubbish tin...

3. Ask here! Plenty of amazing experts willing to share their knowledge freely...

John

There are a number of collectors that collect forgeries, counterfeits and fakes. Although I'm in not in tune with the non-US issues, I collect US counterfeits and some, but not many, do command a hefty catalog value themselves.

In my mind, a 'Forgery' is something produced to fool/defraud a collector.
A 'Counterfeil' is something produced to fool/defraud a postal patron for use as postage.
Both could be called a Fake, or Also fake could be something that is produced intentionally and sold as a "replica/copy/reproduction" which are commonly found on ebay and touted as a "placeholder".

So, when seeing an obvious or suspected fake, the question is: Does the seller know they are not legit? Or are they knowingly committing fraud?. Some may be ignorant of the details for that issue.

Scott's US Specialized Catalog, lists them in the back of the book, not sure if world wide counterfeit issues are listed in the other volumes or not.