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FORGERY METHODS
With so many stamp collectors around, it’s no wonder some find
forging stamps to be a profitable business. Some stamps are in
high demand and if a successful forger were to be able to
reproduce it in such a way that it couldn’t be detectable, then
he’s in for a cash windfall. Many of your philatelists work at
studying forgeries and fakes to prevent this from happening.
One method of forging stamps is to forge the entire piece. The
forger will study a certain stamp extensively and then create a
new plate with the same engraving. Since creating an identical
piece isn’t realistically possible, a philatelist will be able to
spot a forgery by studying the stamps in great detail.
Some stamps are overprinted with another stamped design. These are
called “Overprints”. Forgers have attempted to take certain stamps
and try to recreate the overprint with their own stamps but this
too can be detected fairly easily. Sometimes the overprint would
be placed only on certain stamps and if a forger were to attempt
to overprint another, this would immediately show up as not being
part of the overprint series. Overprints can also be done
differently. Some are typographed while others are lithographed.
Knowing and recognizing the difference between typographing and
lithographing will help a philatelist to know the difference.
In some stamps the difference between one worth a lot of money and
another that’s common is based on the perforation. Due to a
mistake in the original creation of the stamp, some came out with
different perforations. In this case a forger will attempt to
“fake” the stamp. One does this by attempting to cut some
perforations off or add more by cutting into the stamp. A truly
observant philatelist will know exactly how many perfs a stamp
should have and whether or not they meet up correctly in the
corners.
Regumming a stamp is another method of faking a stamp to increase
its value. Many collectors believe that a stamp that has never
been wet on the gum is more valuable. So fakers will regum a
stamp. There are ways to check the authenticity of a stamp’s gum.
The color will be different if it’s been regummed. Another way to
check is to see whether the gum flows into the perforations.
Stamps are gummed before being cut so the gum should be cut neatly
along with the stamp and never flow over the lines.
Another method of faking is to repair an otherwise valuable stamp.
Putting newer modern methods on a stamp for the purpose of passing
it off as a mint condition rare stamp is considered altering the
stamp and is not acceptable.
Some stamps had misprints where a certain color is different or
missing altogether. In this case a faker will apply chemicals to
remove certain otherwise missing colors from the common stamps to
pass it off as the rare misprinted variety.
There are so many ways for forgers and fakers to work at deceiving
collectors. This is why it’s such a good thing for everyone to
have some basic knowledge of philately. This knowledge can protect
some of these individuals from being cheated out of large sums of
money.
Original Article Source:
http://www.RareStamp.com |
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