FOR STAMP COLLECTORS

Evening Star, Issue 22798, 5 November 1937, Page 2

FOR STAMP COLLECTORS

[By Philatelist.]

Forging of stamps is not confined to rare and very valuable issues. The unwary or inexperienced collector may well think himself the proud possessor of a moderately valuable stamp, which, in fact, is but a clever counterfeit that, however, it would take an expert to expose.

In buying such stamps it is always advisable to get the ox>inion of someone in the know before actually completing the purchase. This is especially applicable to those cases where the vendor is an unknown and referenceless individual. If the purchase is from a recognised dealer then no forgery need be feared, for it is more than the fraud is worth for a person with a reputation to handle doubtful goods. An example of the lengths to which forgers go is that of a counterfeit 2 cent PanAmerican indent of 1901, valued at about £540. This stamp shows an express locomotive as a central vignette, in black, with a fancy surround. The forger carefully bleached out the locomotive from an ordinary 2 cent stamp, and then as carefully printed in the engine in an inverted position from a block made from the original stamp. Such a counterfeit is very difficult to lecognise. The surround could not possibly be suspected, and the locomotive itself had no special distinguishing feature, as the bleaching was done with great care; and only the fact that the whereabouts of all the genuine stamps was known prevented a dangerous forgery being placed on the market. Forgers are not always so clever. The most remarkable mistakes have been discovered which, had the forger taken the trouble to examine the original more carefully, would never have come about.

One of these eases was that of a counterfeit of a Kansas stamp with an overprint. The forger included the word Kansas in his overprint, hut actually the word was not to be seen in the correct one. Similar to this was an attempt to produce the 1928 Hawaii overprint 5 cent stamp. The forger was apparently printing the counterfeits in five stamp strips and adding the overprints afterwards. But for some reason he missed overprinting one centre stamp in a five-stamp vertical strip. As this never could have occurred in the genuine issues, suspicion was aroused and the forger exposed in 1935.

One of the most recent of forgeries is that of the Weeping Princess stamp. This stamp, -which is scarce, is a 1 cent Canadian jubileee issue on which appears a portrait of Princess Elizabeth. By some error in making the block some of these make the Princess look as though she was crying, by the occurrence of a tear drop just below her eye. Counterfeiting of this stamp is fairly easy, as all that need be done is to carefully add the tear drop to the ordinary stamp. Many forgeries that are in existence were not made to bo sold as reproductions of valuable stamps. They were printed at the time the stamps were in ordinary circulation to be scud as real stamps for use in, posting. This : does

not only apply to old issues hut also to present day stamps. Only a short time, ago the Federal Agents in America captured a gang of forgers who were printing hundreds of the usual 2 cents stamps from electro-type plates. Capture followed the insertion of an advertisement by the gang in a newspaper stating that they had £23 of uncancelled stamps for sale at £2O. Another gang also tried to reproduce the same stamp; very cleverly they slightly altered the printing on each sheet of stamps so that the forgeries would not he traced as being the issues of one set of forgers. Anprehension followed the discovery but the counterfeits were all being printed on an inferior kind of paper.

But the biggest danger comes from used stamps. They are so easy to forge. Often after the forger has commenced printing he notices a, mistake that will betray him. It is a comparatively easy matter to place a smudge postmark over his flaw. The collector is caught every time, for few to examine the postmark when buying used stamps.