Papal States, Another Rabbit Hole

So I picked these up at a fair price, I am not qualified to expertise them by any means. I do see continuous horizontal lines(except some breaks in the field) and vertical lines stopping before the intersection. Unfortunately and fortunately the seller has another lot of different ones than this for sale that I don't want to pass up but don't want to buy straight forgeries at this time. I'm leaning towards waiting until I can get better at detecting them but I figured I would post here and see what the family had to say. Thanks John

Of course the obvious first step is education.

What references do you have which describe the differences between genuine stamps and the fakes, forgeries, reprints, etc.? What additional references would be helpful?

And yet, there is often nothing like having a group of stamps in hand to study the difference.

Well put John, I've started with the Vatican city philatelic society web page but I know I'll be purchasing one of the specialized books soon. I wish I could focus on one thing but my mind(and heart) get easily distracted. I have almost completed braunschweig, Bavaria, wurttemberg, and first issue us revenue, than I find something like this and I see shiny objects I must have. Ha! My plan is to set a price of $5 a stamp and if I happen to get them when the auction is over I'll be happy. If not, it wasn't meant to be.

What word is under the 3c? "verified"? "checked"?

"To be inspected"

It's a minefield to be sure.

I've found this article very useful for the first issue https://stampforgeries.blogspot.com...es-1852.html

Wow great article got, thank you!

It is likely just the sheen of the flash, but that unused one looks like they regummed it over the hinges. :)

Thanks to Gmot I felt confident in bidding on the two lots today. Out of the first 8 I have in hand 5 are definitely looking genuine 2 are skeptical and 1 needs more time and research. Well I won both lots so I'm super happy. Also grabbed more Sardinia stamps while I was at it but that's for another thread. Here's a couple pics of the new additions. Photo quality isn't great. I'll post in hand images once they make it from Italy to PA

Thanks goes to the writer of that forgery website - it's an excellent resource overall.

Good luck with your new stamps! - always interesting to figure out what is forgery vs. genuine.

Yea it definitely is. I just got looking through perf12's blog on there with the Sardinia forgeries. Very excited about them as well. Wish I had more time to spend on looking at my stamps but for now I'll do what I can and keep trying to educate myself while I keep purchasing.