Is This Thick Guideline On A 394 Pair OK?

Perfs aside. Notice how the centerline ink is darker around the holes and at the bottom of the stamp. I doubt that is coincidental.

Good point! No way that would happen before the holes were there.

That still begs the question, why would someone mess up an already nice pair with an obviously fake line? Of course it is possible that it was produced using an unwatermarked imperf and then a fake watermark was added. They don't show up often, but they do exist.........

Exactly. What we see here is a classic case of confirmation bias. It makes no sense to defile a $350 coil pair with a crappy guideline. Zero.

RLSNY - What are the odds. Your exact coil pair is pictured in this Collectors Club PDF on fake coils. Page 73 of the PDF. Wonder where Lang got it from.

https://www.collectorsclub.org/wp-c...in-Coils.pdf

And it made less sense 7 decades ago, when the catalog values were not only much lower, but much more equal ($4.50 vs. $5.50).

It's pretty obvious that the fake line increases the value of the unlined pair. Unfortunately the fake line is detected for obvious reasons that don't include its "width". Many persons are looking for "the edge" to make a buck that doesn't exist. Classic example here.
No offense Revcollector we take Risny as being able to ascertain a watermark as genuine.
If watermarked 190 as Risny stated, the only questionthat exists is whether the line is fraudulent or not, and OP has answered that question.
Cheers once again, mark

Just a follow up
This is what makes this whole series of stamps (W Fs) so fascinating. And the coils especially so.
Regards, mark
It is my belief, not fact , that a lot of these "alterations " occurred in the 80s wen the idiots like me, entered the market with more money than sense and bought the fraudulent issues at face. "Let the screwing begin"
Cheers, m

Nice to have clarity lol. It shouldn't surprise anyone that Langs was willing to pass something like this off. If you look at the Scott #1 I have currently on auction, it was listed as grayish brown and no faults listed. It looks like a space filler. One doesn't have to have any special equipment to figure it out. I sent it to the PF along with the brown oranges just to deal with it. It came back discolored (obvious) and repaired including margins added and frame line drawn in.

This is why I'm being very careful. I don't mind selling a stamp like that as long as it is fully disclosed.

To be clear, there is plenty of wonderful material. But every stamp is a minefield.

The ironic bit: I'm definitely enjoying it. Even when a beauty comes up reperfed. I know the value just dropped by a lot. But I feel like I'm repairing the world by cleaning up the bad deeds of the previous owner.

I actually had that presentation saved Rogdcam. Notice it stated : faked guidelines on coil pairs. Not fraudulent coil pairs,regards m

RLSNY - I give you credit for taking on Lang's material AND practicing due diligence instead of just spraying it all over the internet as being what Lang called it no matter how ridiculous. There are so many resellers that buy bad stuff and if the 102 card has "Very Rare Uncatalogued Essay, One of One" they just go with it. Or they see that something is faked or repaired and become SGT Schultz (some of you will know what I reference).

I wish you nothing but the best.

PS: I still would love to know how the exact coil pair in the 2017 PDF ended up with Lang. Lang 100% knew that guideline was bogus. He may have been shady but he knew his stamps.

That took all of the fun out of this thread.

Note the horizontal color density variations across the line which should not be present. Also look at the edge of some holes where the ink is darker in a spot. That indicates drawn as such does not occur with a genuine line flat nor rotary plate. The line crosses 10 perforation holes plus two stamp edges. A quick scan by eye shows 7 problem dark areas including the bottom edge.

I wasn't suggesting that it wasn't, only that the possibility exists. Eliminating the various possibilities is what ascertaining exactly what one has is all about.

Could also be trimmed

Something else to look for is setoff of the guideline ink on back. The sheet below would have the guide line in the same location and would leave setoff ink as strong as the stamp frames.