Central Lithuania 1921 Issue (Scot 42) Perforated 11.5

Hi all,

Curious to see what more thorough catalogs say about this stamp. My Scott Classic lists this stamp in two main perforation varieties: imperf and perf 14. There is a perf 13.5 variety, which is at significant premium, but nothing about 11.5 perforation.

The issue is forged, and forgeries come perf 11.5. The forgeries are high quality and printing is hard to tell from genuine, but the papers are different. Genuine paper is on the thin side and a bit translucent, forgeries are on a dense bright white paper.

Interesting. Given that this stamp is common, forgeries are probably harder to come by. Great. Thanks a lot.

Well, forgeries are actually common enough themselves. It's more that because they really can't be told apart from the genuine by printing, they've been assumed to be genuine and resided in collections for years. There are a good number posing as genuine in the usual sales sites today, even found perf 11.5.

Being relatively common, it's a guess that they were made for the packet trade. Who made them and when is apparently still unknown.

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the forgeries are not always perforated 11.5, but all 11.5 perforated stamps are forgeries, correct?