Philatelic & Postal Forgeries - Do you have any?

stampspecialist · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2012 16:35:37 pm

HayeSmyth wrote:

The pictured 'forgery', is exactly that. This, the Spiro forgery is the most common Hong Kong type found. They were produced in large quantities for each value in the 1862/1863 issues.

A few years ago, when the London Strand Palace Hotel stamp fair was running, one dealer had blocks of eight of these, complete with faked B62 cancellations. Incidentally, all of these were 'pre-cancelled' during printing. Stupidly, I didn't buy any.

None of these were printed in the correct colours, and when compared side by side with a genuine stamp, they look rather ridiculous. But that's easy for me to say, as I have the genuine stamps to use for comparison.

A new collector, or one unfamilar with Hong Kong stamps, could easily be fooled.

I started collecting Hong Kong forgeries and fakes some years ago. It is a collecting field in its own right. There were a number of other forgers too - and some of their efforts were superior to Spiro. E.g Sperati, Sartory, Zechmeyer and Panelli.

Panelli produced quite passable forgeries on a thicker watermarked paper. Even the perforations were usually pretty good too. Although the watermark is usually indistinct, it is enough to convince some buyers that they must be genuine. Here is an example, with a very good 'rose-carmine' shade but the perfs are a bit squiffy on this example. Note that the paper does have a rather pinkish tinge though:

Now here is a cracker! This is the Sperati 96c olive-bistre forgery, (this is about £700 if genuine).

To use an oft used expression; this is a dangerous forgery. You would have to have a very keen eye to spot this one, and be naturally suspicious in the first place. In fact I am not sure myself if the cancellation is faked or genuine. The colour and the barred barrel of the B62 cancel is spot on, albeit rather too nicely applied!

Clive;
Here are some of my Oneglia Hong Kong forgeries. Panelli did not make them, just sold them. These are poorly perforated. I will also post some that are better quality.
Bryan

stampspecialist · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2012 16:49:05 pm

Oneglia Hong Kong forgeries on piece with B62 cancel. Pretty good forgeries with a cancel close to what was used on the genuine stamps.

librarianc · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2012 22:28:23 pm

Very nice stuff, Bryan. I look forward to seeing more of your "specialty".........

John A

Heinz55 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2012 23:25:45 pm

South America is feared for its forgeries. So I think that of all the stamps shown in the scan just the 1st 5 cents, 25 cts & 10 cts are not faked. All the rest ....
Can anybody give an opinion ?

librarianc · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2012 23:32:40 pm

Heinz55:

These are tough to work out at the best of times...............but you will need to post smaller groups with larger images for anyone to have any chance of offering an opinion. Adding several images to your post is not a problem and with 400 dpi and 150% scans, you may get some help with these.

John A

Heinz55 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 03:30:48 am

Thank you, John (librarianc) for your reply. I had not planned to provoke comments on the shown stamps but on the overall situation with early South American stamps. Trying to follow your advice, I discovered that my scanner can only do 300 or 600 dpi, so now here they are at 600 dpi.

erikc67 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 14:28:32 pm

Having been "taken in" by a book of pretty wallpaper stamps, and after reading parts of this thread, I'm beginning to think I'm in way over my head. How much more material do I own that is actually bogus? I wanted to be a stamp collector and not a philatelist, but a lack of knowledge/trained eye puts me in danger of being a chump buyer. I went on the assumption that only the high end stuff was getting knocked off. Maybe I should stick to baseball cards. :cry:

On the other hand, I could go on collecting, blissfully ignorant of the frauds in my stamp albums, and let my children find out the truth when they try to unload my collection after I pass. :roll:

Erik

stampspecialist · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 14:41:29 pm

Erik;

Don't give up! Take it as a challenge, collect forgeries!

Seriously, what is it you collect, maybe I can suggest some references so you can avoid being ripped off. Knowledge is power and you need a decent philatelic library and reference collection to best enjoy your stamps and be your own expert.

Bryan

erikc67 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 15:01:44 pm

Thanks for the note of encouragement.

I have about 3,000 face different issues from Hungary that are housed in Minkus pages, and a three-volume (since increased to five) Minkus Global set, unused from 1974, that was given to me by someone I found on craigslist. The man had received it as a birthday present back in the day and never hinged a single stamp to it.

I added supplemental pages through 1979 before realizing that the pages are not comprehensive. I've added 3,000-plus stamps to the Global set and I've got roughly 25,000 loose stamps waiting to be added, acquisitions from local stamp bourses, a hobby shop, flea markets and ebay. It was through ebay that I picked up the wall paper stamps.

I also have a U.S. Liberty album, mint stamps only.

As for literature, not a lot. Some SG issues here and there, and the Scott catalog pages for Hungary (literally pulled from a broken down 2012 volume, but still glued together). Hoping to pick up a full Scott or SG catalog set in the future.
Erik

stampspecialist · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 15:26:35 pm

Erik;

Hungary is not a country I have much reference material on, I will put up a scan of a Sperati forgery that is pretty dangerous.
There is a web site online that might help;
http://www.hungarianphilately.org/intro ... amps_2.htm

Bryan

stampspecialist · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 15:31:39 pm

Erik;

As for your world wide collection I would advise narrowing that down to something more manageable like just your birth year world wide or World War I era, etc. The USA also might be more interesting if you specialized in just a particular issue like the definitive set that came out when you were young, collect it mint, postal usages, varieties, etc.
Unless you are rich, then go for the world.

Bryan

stampspecialist · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 15:37:10 pm

Here is a nice website set up by another forgery collector that covers world wide forgeries;

http://www.geocities.com/claghorn1p/

I use it all the time.

Bryan

europhil · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 15:41:47 pm

If you have any questionable Hungarian material I may be
able to help.

stampspecialist · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 15:51:43 pm

Sperati Forgery, Hungary

The paper, perforations and Szilágy cancel are genuine. Sperati faded out the design from a more common stamp to print this. Specific detection tests are;
1. Breaks in outer frame line;
2. The two pearls in the middle left are joined; and
3. There is a bump on the left side of the numeral '1'

This forgery is unmarked on the back, unlike many Sperati forgeries that have the British Philatelic Society markings. It came from Sperati's widow.
Bryan

nota bene · **Posted:** Thu Jun 21, 2012 09:22:56 am

mikeg wrote:

I posted this on another thread also:

An early Japanese Tourist sheet with Wada forgeries from about 1895 or so.

Every stamp on the sheet is an engraved forgery

These are all from plates that were hand engraved, just like the originals.

They all have a 'sanko' or 'mozo' in the design somewhere, but many are impossible to find are or are hidden by the cancels.

Without looking too closely it appears to me that the black 30 sen with a central cork cancellation would be genuine. Not everything on these tourist sheets is automatically forgeries - just the vast majority.

CASACUDOR · **Posted:** Sun Jul 01, 2012 22:01:16 pm

1874 Japan cherry blossom 6 sen - forgery or genuine?

mikeg · **Posted:** Sun Jul 01, 2012 23:00:09 pm

Casacudor- This is a Spiro forgery. Easy to spot by the standard Spiro perfs and the 'Nagasaki' cancel which is blank in the center.

I thought I had all the Spiro's of the 6 sen, but yours appears to be in brown :shock:

Nota Bene- All the stamps on the sheet I show above have the 'mozo' or 'sanko' printed on them.

I have also plated all of them- so no chance of any being genuine

Wada was very creative with his cancels- the variety is endless.

CASACUDOR · **Posted:** Mon Jul 02, 2012 00:53:57 am

mikeg wrote:

Casacudor- This is a Spiro forgery. Easy to spot by the standard Spiro perfs and the 'Nagasaki' cancel which is blank in the center.

thanks Mike for enlightened me
this one bellow is another Spiro? 1874 Japan 30 sen

thanks in advance - Anton

mikeg · **Posted:** Mon Jul 02, 2012 02:49:53 am

Hi Anton- Yes, another Spiro. Again the perfs, and the New South Wales cancel that is one of the most common of all Spiro cancels

Machaggis52 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 02, 2012 03:48:59 am

gavin-h wrote:

Philatelic Forgeries: Germany, Soviet Zone Currency Reform 1948.

There were 1,900 different overprints applied at 1,100 different Post Offices in the Soviet Zone over a 10 day period in June/July 1948.

These were done in reaction to the replacement of the Reichsmark with the Deutschmark in the Western Zones - the Russians introduced the "Ostmark" (more correctly Mark Deutsche Notenbank - "MDN") and used these overprints as a provisional measure to denote the new currency until more "formal" issues could be produced.

I've just bought these from Glen, and not received yet, so I'm going purely off the scans here...

On appearance, I believe that the "3 Berlin 7" set are forgeries - the ink is too dark and there is only a "single" overprint on each stamp - normally one would expect to see the "7" of the next stamp on this one, for example.

The "27 Gaschwitz" ones look OK - paler ink, and the "tz" overlaps on a few values.

Of the 5 loose stamps, I'd be suspicious of the "37 Crivitz" one (that's a widely-forged overprint), but the others look OK.

Of course, when I've actually examined them I may change my view on any or all of the above...

The reason for forgeries - the overprints are catalogued much more highly than the unoverprinted issue, hence were widely forged.

The method - some were done using the original equipment; some were completely fabricated with the wrong typeface etc. A giveaway is that if a single stamp was overprinted (not a block), there is only ever a single strike; if a block or full sheet were done, there is overlapping of the ends of the overprint on adjacent stamps (which the forgers would not normally bother with...).

The 3 Berlin 7 are indeed forgeries. The print is too crisp and the font is wrong.

missionshk · **Posted:** Sat Jul 14, 2012 17:09:37 pm

I bought this yesterday but now I realise that it might be a forgery Spiro. Was this postmark ever valid? Whats your opinion?

stampspecialist · **Posted:** Sun Jul 15, 2012 09:59:21 am

missionshk wrote:

I bought this yesterday but now I realise that it might be a forgery Spiro. Was this postmark ever valid? Whats your opinion?

missionshk, it looks genuine to me. It is not a Spiro forgery.

On the left is a Spiro forgery, genuine on the right. The 'T' of 'SOUTH' should be under the 'T' of 'POSTAGE', but here it is placed sligthly to the left of it. The crown points to the center of the 'O' of 'SOUTH', while it should point to the front of this letter. There is also no small white ornament above the 'T' of 'POSTAGE' as in the genuine stamps. The NSW lettering is solid on the Spiro, the genuine is double lined.

More Spiro forgeries.

stampspecialist · **Posted:** Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:03:53 am

Oneglia made engraved forgeries of this issue. I only have these two, compare to the Spiro on the left and the genuine on the right. If anyone has any others I am looking to buy or trade!

Machaggis52 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 18, 2012 07:03:26 am

gavin-h wrote:

Philatelic Forgeries: Germany, Soviet Zone Currency Reform 1948.

There were 1,900 different overprints applied at 1,100 different Post Offices in the Soviet Zone over a 10 day period in June/July 1948.

These were done in reaction to the replacement of the Reichsmark with the Deutschmark in the Western Zones - the Russians introduced the "Ostmark" (more correctly Mark Deutsche Notenbank - "MDN") and used these overprints as a provisional measure to denote the new currency until more "formal" issues could be produced.

I've just bought these from Glen, and not received yet, so I'm going purely off the scans here...

On appearance, I believe that the "3 Berlin 7" set are forgeries - the ink is too dark and there is only a "single" overprint on each stamp - normally one would expect to see the "7" of the next stamp on this one, for example.

The "27 Gaschwitz" ones look OK - paler ink, and the "tz" overlaps on a few values.

Of the 5 loose stamps, I'd be suspicious of the "37 Crivitz" one (that's a widely-forged overprint), but the others look OK.

Of course, when I've actually examined them I may change my view on any or all of the above...

The reason for forgeries - the overprints are catalogued much more highly than the unoverprinted issue, hence were widely forged.

The method - some were done using the original equipment; some were completely fabricated with the wrong typeface etc. A giveaway is that if a single stamp was overprinted (not a block), there is only ever a single strike; if a block or full sheet were done, there is overlapping of the ends of the overprint on adjacent stamps (which the forgers would not normally bother with...).

It doesn't help that the base stamps are dirt cheap, full sheets sell for a few quid.

doug2222usa · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 04:51:08 am

One of the world's dumbest counterfeits:

Great Britain SG #O69, issued in 1897. Bogus overprint on a stamp cancelled in 1886...

amhb · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 15:16:09 pm

I got a "deal of the century" for only $20.00!

A very nice copy with only the perforations wrong on first glance:

Hi Res Copy : http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r580/amhb1/Forgery-Canda387a/cf7e9b3f.jpg

Ray

NewPhilatelist · **Posted:** Tue Sep 11, 2012 01:36:01 am

amhb wrote:

I got a "deal of the century" for only $20.00!

A very nice copy with only the perforations wrong on first glance:

It appears that the blue center design has been copied, then pasted (digitally or physically) inverted onto itself. Note the top right corner of the design; the original orientation shows through due to poor overlap.

David

amhb · **Posted:** Tue Sep 11, 2012 02:10:57 am

Good points. (pasted over actually) Could fool new collectors.

Ray

nasreldeen · **Posted:** Tue Sep 11, 2012 04:16:00 am

I have those forgeries for Egypt's 2nd & 3rd issues

yet, I don't know who did it

tonymacg · **Posted:** Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:02:15 am

A postal forgery for a change: This is a forgery of the Jammu & Kashmir ½ Anna of 1879

paying the basic local letter rate. It appears to still be on a fragment of envelope

and to have been printed in watercolour. By this stage, the Jammu & Kashmir printers had become more sophisticated, and were using printer's ink, so the watercolour was a bit of a lapse.

Here is a genuine ½ Anna red for comparison:

dynamode · **Posted:** Wed Sep 12, 2012 03:50:41 am

This one I think, is a forgery of Luxembourg 1865-74 Scott 18.

Inactive image - Link deleted by Moderator

mako · **Posted:** Wed Sep 12, 2012 06:18:22 am

Anyone collecting Slovenia's Chainbreaker series is likely to encounter the "Padevet" forgeries of the 15 and 20 kronen stamps; the highest values in the series, which were issued on 15 May 1920.

The forgeries can be found perforate/imperforate and on a wide range of paper types. Imperforates are often sold as "Proofs."

Whatever the format, there is a simple way to identify the forgeries for each value.

15 kronen: forgery on the left; regular stamp on the right.

In the left-hand value numerals, there is a small pale dot near the top of the figure 1. This appears in all the Padevet forgeries of the 15K.

20 kronen: forgery on the left (this example shows the missing "J" in "KRALJE" variety).

About two-thirds of the way over on the upper frame, there is a break created by a patch where there is no colour. This appears in all the Padevet forgeries of the 20K.

vikingeck · **Posted:** Wed Sep 12, 2012 09:02:43 am

Denmark's scarcest stamp the 1851 Local issue for Copenhagen

First the genuine :

Now two forgeries : IF YOU CAN SEE THE CROSS ON THE CROWN FROM 2METRES IT IS FAKE !

And another forgery

Genuine has neater posthorn with the letter "F" in the loop .

Genuine never has outer frame lines between the stamps as seen on the forgeries > but the cross is the big give a way! Never crisp and clear on the genuine!

alanl · **Posted:** Wed Sep 12, 2012 15:05:18 pm

Here`s the 6 cent Centennials series forgery from Canada.
Forgery on top normal stamp on bottom.

dynamode · **Posted:** Wed Sep 12, 2012 22:23:22 pm

If you are interested in forgeries, I have found a book with a chapter that is a good read. You can read it online, or download for free.

The book is called chats on postage stamps, by Fred Melville, published in 1911.

The link is below. Look to the left (view the book) for your options. If you just want to read the forgeries section, its page 237.

http://archive.org/details/chatsonpostagest00melvrich

Philatelics (Australia) · **Posted:** Thu Nov 22, 2012 18:45:53 pm

A modern Australian forgery, the 1978 Aviators miniature sheet. The Commonwealth specialist catalogue states they were produced in Holland and were intended to defraud Australia Post's stamp repurchase scheme, when that was in operation.

This is Lot 345 from our next auction.

1978 Aviators Postal Forgery miniature sheet MUH. ACSC 794cd. (ACSC states "It is believed the sheets were produced in Holland, and they were intended to defraud Australia Post under the stamp re-purchase scheme, then in operation"). Estimate $100.00

The Auction can be viewed online at http://www.philatelics.com.au

Steve

Grich · **Posted:** Thu Nov 22, 2012 19:17:35 pm

Philatelics (Australia) wrote:

A modern Australian forgery, the 1978 Aviators miniature sheet. The Commonwealth specialist catalogue states they were produced in Holland and were intended to defraud Australia Post's stamp repurchase scheme, when that was in operation.

This is Lot 345 from our next auction.

1978 Aviators Postal Forgery miniature sheet MUH. ACSC 794cd. (ACSC states "It is believed the sheets were produced in Holland, and they were intended to defraud Australia Post under the stamp re-purchase scheme, then in operation"). Estimate $100.00

The Auction can be viewed online at http://www.philatelics.com.au

Steve

Wow, I never knew about this forgery, I have several of these, how can I tellif it is?

Philatelics (Australia) · **Posted:** Fri Nov 23, 2012 13:12:59 pm

Grich wrote:

Philatelics (Australia) wrote:

A modern Australian forgery, the 1978 Aviators miniature sheet. The Commonwealth specialist catalogue states they were produced in Holland and were intended to defraud Australia Post's stamp repurchase scheme, when that was in operation.

This is Lot 345 from our next auction.

1978 Aviators Postal Forgery miniature sheet MUH. ACSC 794cd. (ACSC states "It is believed the sheets were produced in Holland, and they were intended to defraud Australia Post under the stamp re-purchase scheme, then in operation"). Estimate $100.00

The Auction can be viewed online at http://www.philatelics.com.au

Steve

Wow, I never knew about this forgery, I have several of these, how can I tellif it is?

Viewed together with a genuine one the differences are quite apparent with most colours differing to varying degrees. The mountains on the map are more grey than yellow brown, the background more a grey-blue than blue, the text is much less clear, the paper thinner and more transparent with an unusual "curl", the Blue background is almost solid under magnification, whereas the genuine has a dot structure.

Regards

Steve

Philatelics (Australia) · **Posted:** Fri Nov 23, 2012 13:43:47 pm

Another forgery from our forthcoming auction is this 2d red KGV Postal Forgery, that we have identified as being from position 2 on the printing plate.

Lot 167

1932 2d Scarlet KGV Postal Forgery fine used. Identified as position No 2 on the printing block with White flaw (instead of shading) to immediate right of kangaroo's tail and traces of extra line outside left frame. Scarce.

Est $350.00

Philatelics (Australia) · **Posted:** Fri Nov 23, 2012 13:55:20 pm

I haven't often seen the 2d Red KGV postal forgeries plated, there are 30 different stamps on the forgers printing plate of 50 stamps, some being repeated.

Here is a scan of the plateable variations, taken from an old copy of "Philately From Australia". I think this could be useful information for other collectors, but could the moderators please remove if they feel there are copyright concerns.

Upstairsnl · **Posted:** Sat Dec 08, 2012 23:09:25 pm

stampspecialist wrote:

Oneglia made engraved forgeries of this issue. I only have these two, compare to the Spiro on the left and the genuine on the right. If anyone has any others I am looking to buy or trade!

I bought several books in one buy and in one book I found some known reprints from Samoa and Nigeria and because of that not sure about the stamps on the two pictures below. are these forgeries?
Have a look at these stamps;

and

On the second one you see stamps from early Italy(Sardinie?) and German states. Almost too good to be true.

tonymacg · **Posted:** Sun Dec 09, 2012 09:56:37 am

This rather tatty old Indian cover

with an imperf ½ Anna is quite genuine, and was never intended to defraud either the Indian Post Office or collectors. However, the unwary might be taken in: Gibbons lists used imperf pairs of the ½ Anna at from £1800 to £3000.

In this case, and there are very many similar ones from that period in the 1850s to 60s, the sender was unfamiliar with these new perforation things, and saw no need for them. So he cut them off to save weight: you never know, leaving the perforations on might have pushed the letter up to the next weight scale, and cost another ½ Anna.

Collectors of India will be very familiar with this sort of thing; even collectors of the Indian States will know them - but a trap for the general collector

kushti · **Posted:** Thu Apr 18, 2013 01:11:42 am

This I believe is an 1875 Spiro of the Orange Free State one shilling. The image and colour are pretty accurate but the perfs are poor and the cancellation is laughable. These don't turn up so often I think.


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