Belgium B27, Genuine Or Counterfeit?

In the 2019 Scott catalog there is this commentary: "Counterfeits of Nos. B25-B27 abound. Probably as many as 90% of the stamps on the market are counterfeits".

That rather surprised me, though B27 catalogs at $15 and the set of B25-B27 catalog at $90 if never hinged ... a case of rarity?

I purchased this mint light hinged stamp for $1.00 from a dealer I trade with often, the Red Cross is a topical interest. I wonder if anyone familiar with these stamps might be able to identify it as genuine or nor not from the picture. I will be hoping to find B25 and B26 to complete my set, as well as B28-B30. I would like to avoid counterfeits, if possible, but in any case, I would like to be sure the stamps are properly identified.

Thank you.

It's a counterfeit, there should be three and a half pearls to the left of the 20. These stamp were issued just before the German's invaded in WWI. The stamps at the printer were hidden in the back of an oven at a neighborhood baker's and only a few were out to the post offices. There were lots and lots of quite good forgeries, partially because they were so scarce for quite some time. There are two types of each design for the genuine, and the 10c are by far the hardest to tell good from bad.
BTW, my belief is that 90% estimate is too low, try closer to 99%...

Agree with Billsey and add that these show up in huge numbers of collections that I have processed and all of them were fake even when there were highly valued genuine stamps otherwise in the collections.

Thank you Billsey and rogdcam for your replies and the information. It is helpful and much appreciated.

I do hope that Scott(as we know the leading authority on Belgium stamps in the world) have contacted OBP(the Belgium catalogue) and Michel to point out that them mentioning: Fakes and reprints exist. Is not enough and that they should change this to "probably" as many as 90% are counterfeits"

I also hope that all 3 catalogus will change ther catalogue values from the very low hundreds in dollars to a much higher number as this apparently is a very rare series to find in real stamps.

The above of course, is me being ironic.

But read it carefully while you sit down in a comfortable chair for 15 minutes and think about what I wrote.

Yes there are fakes/counterfits out there. If you look on ebay or delcampe right know, you will find them. even series with mixes of real/fake stamps.

But assuming that of the 10 stamps in front of you automaticly 9 must be fake sets a precedent, also in how you think.

In other words, do not go blindly on what a catalogue says, It is always Ok to think/look for yourself.

If I have accidently offended anybody, I apologize in advance.

This is so true.

Here's an example (not mine) of a genuine specimen, with the "three and a half" pearls in the lower right Billsey mentioned.

Thank you 'moneil' for bringing up the question and 'classic_paper' for showing a genuine copy. I never knew how to tell genuine. Now I know that I have one genuine and one forgery that I thought was a shade.

Can I assume other denominations of same design that have the 3 1/2 pearls to the left of denomination are genuine?

Ah, but there are forgeries that do have the three and a half pearls... It's a good tell for the simple forgeries, but not enough for the rest. I'm trying to find my links to the best forgeries page for these, but it might have gone away in the last few years. :(

I think this is his site, but it's only showing the Merode now.

The Bible if you can find it:

Belgium, The Forgeries of The Red Cross Small Albert Heads of 1914 by H. Dober, 1989.

I gotta check mine. As rogdcam said, it is odd that the fakes are in collections with plenty of higher value sets/stamps. I HAVE run into a bunch of them over the last 5-10 years. Now I know what to look for. At least for one of the forgeries.

I checked Cherrystone records for sales of this issue and found only the following from 2009:




Sold for $575