Modern Counterfeit US Postage

Greeting,

I have be a reader and a seldom poster. I have the following questions concerning the number of different modern US Postage counterfeits popping up. In the US SCOTT 2021 Catalog their section is growing.

I searched the forums and could not find a dedicated section or many posts. Did I miss it in my search of "Modern Counterfeits?"

Is a there much interest in collecting them?

Where can I get more information besides Scott's?

Many Thanks in advance on any help in this area.

Cheers

Jose - The topic of modern counterfeits comes up quite often but not in the context of being collectible. Most of the modern stuff originates in Chinese print and is not meant to fool collectors but rather to defraud the USPS which in turn costs all of us more. It is produced in massive quantities as well. Not sure where Scott values come and have not run across anyone that collects the stuff although there must be people that do.

Some search terms that might work are similar to "fake forever stamps" and " ebay forever stamps".

I am sure there are people collecting them, especially on cover. I suspect that somewhere there is at least one dealer somewhere currently stocking up a supply of as many different types as they can get, for collectors in the future. And the classic counterfeits are generally quite scarce, and have a wide interest.

Three recent articles related to modern forgeries:

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamp...anes-turn-up
https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamp...ation-stamps
https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamp...tamp-program

The Collectors Club Philatelist did one recently as well.

I know a several people who collect them. I used to, but there are just too many of them and every one you buy benefits a criminal.

It benefits criminals with government approval; it's much to large and well organized to not have their approval and help.

On the SCF, the discussions of modern counterfeits seem to arise when someone posts about the discounted, sometimes quite deeply, Forever Stamps that can be found on ebay. Sales often come from the Southern California area. Often the purchaser mentions getting only 99 or 101 stamps in a roll of 100. Also missing are the plate numbers one would expect to find on a roll of 100 as well as other "differences" which are due to the stamps being counterfeit, not printing varieties of official USA issue stamps.

So they are discussed, but in a manner buried in a manner not reflected in the thread's title nor would the search term, "Modern Counterfeits" locate those threads. In my many postings on the subject, I would use only "counterfeit" in my text.

I found what I beleive to be my first counterfeit stamp. There is no USPS microprinting anywhere and the printing quality is clearly lower than any other 2019 flag stamp I have. Especially look at "FOREVER / USA." I'm going to see if the person that sent us the mail knows where she got the stamp.

Received this one on a piece of mail (local solicitation) recently, and didn't have a chance to examine it closely until today. When I first saw it, it struck me as being different from what I recalled seeing on other 2020 "Love" stamps.

The one that I believe is a fake is printed on a darker, more shiny and slightly heavier stock. The 2020 date is slightly smaller, and the "USPS" printing is different, as shown. I measure the rouletting as 10.9 on both the genuine and counterfeit stamps, but the tips of the vertical rouletting are noticeably less rounded/sharper on the bogus stamp. Although the paper is darker on the fake, it appears brighter under UV light.

the design on this one is so simple that it is easy to copy the design, but they clearly got the microprinting wrong