Spotting forgeries, reprints and repairs

Every collector worries about buying a fake, and most never knowingly do. The reason is simple: forgers concentrate on stamps worth forging, and a beginner rarely buys one. As your collection grows, though, you will meet stamps where the difference between genuine and false — or between perfect and repaired — is worth real money.

Most problems can be caught with a magnifier, a perforation gauge, a reference copy and the habit of checking before you pay. This guide covers what to look for.

Forgeries, fakes and reprints

Collectors use these words carefully, because each means something different:

• A forgery is a complete imitation of a stamp, made to deceive — either the post office (a postal forgery, used to avoid paying postage) or collectors (a philatelic forgery).
• A fake is a genuine stamp altered to look like something more valuable: a overprint added, a colour changed, perforations trimmed off to imitate an imperforate stamp.
• A reprint is printed from the original plates or designs after the stamp was withdrawn, sometimes officially. Reprints are not forgeries, but they are worth much less than the originals and are often sold as originals.
• A facsimile is an honest copy, usually marked as such, made for display or reference. The danger is when someone removes the marking.
• A bogus stamp imitates nothing: it is an invented issue, for a place or event that never had stamps.

Some issues are forged far more often than others. Among Indian stamps, the Scinde Dawk of 1852 and many of the early lithographed issues have been forged extensively; so have many stamps of the Indian states. For stamps like these, assume nothing is genuine until it has been checked.

The best defence is a reference copy: a genuine example, or good enlarged images of one, to compare against. Look at the design detail, the paper, the colour, the perforation gauge, the watermark and above all the printing method. Genuine engraved stamps have ink you can feel standing up from the paper; a lithographed forgery of one is flat. A photographic copy shows a fine screen of dots under a magnifier that the original does not have.

Some forgers were very skilled. The best — Jean de Sperati, working in the mid-twentieth century, is the famous example — produced work that fooled experts. That is why valuable stamps carry certificates.

Faked cancellations and overprints

A postmark or an overprint can change a stamp’s value many times over, which makes both attractive to fakers.

• Faked cancellations are added to unused stamps that are worth more used, or to make a stamp appear to come from a scarce post office or date. Check that the postmark type, lettering and date were actually in use at that office at that time, and that the ink sits on top of the stamp, not under it.
• Removed cancellations work the other way: a pen or light cancel cleaned off so a used stamp can be sold as unused. Look for thinned or disturbed paper and colour that is slightly faded where the cancel was.
• Faked overprints turn a common stamp into a scarcer one. Compare the type, spacing and ink with a known genuine example; forged overprints are often slightly too heavy, too sharp, or the wrong shade.

Covers deserve the same care. A genuine cover’s postmarks, rates and route should all make sense together. A stamp that has been added to an envelope it never travelled on — a “made-up” cover — often has a postmark that doesn’t quite line up across the stamp and the paper.

Repairs: regumming, reperforating, filled thins

A repaired stamp is a genuine stamp that has been improved to hide damage. Repairs are not always dishonest — a repaired rarity can be a perfectly good stamp to own — but they must be disclosed and priced accordingly. The common ones:

• Regumming. New gum to make a hinged or ungummed stamp look never hinged. Signs: gum that is too smooth or too even, gum on the tips of the perforation teeth, a different colour or sheen from genuine gum on the same issue.
• Reperforating. New perforations cut along a straight or damaged edge. Signs: holes that don’t match the gauge of the other sides, are slightly irregular, or are too clean; a stamp that is narrower than it should be.
• Filled thins and closed tears. Paper pulp or adhesive used to fill a thin spot or close a tear. Signs: a patch that looks different in transmitted light or under ultraviolet light, slight stiffness in one area.
• Added margins and corners. A missing piece rebuilt and the design painted in. Signs: a join visible against the light, colour that differs under ultraviolet light.

An inexpensive ultraviolet lamp is one of the most useful tools for spotting repairs and paper differences. Use it in a darkened room, and never look into the lamp.

When to get an expert’s certificate

Expertization is the process of having a stamp examined by a recognised expert committee, which issues a signed certificate stating its opinion: genuine or not, and any faults, repairs or alterations found. It costs money and takes weeks, so it is worth doing when:

• the stamp is valuable enough that a mistake would really hurt;
• it belongs to an issue known to be widely forged or faked;
• its value depends on something easily faked — an overprint, a postmark, unused gum, an imperforate edge;
• you intend to sell it, and a certificate would reassure the buyer.

When buying a stamp that already has a certificate, check that the stamp matches the certificate’s photograph exactly, that the certificate comes from a recognised committee, and what it says about condition. If you are offered a valuable stamp without one, ask the seller to sell it subject to a certificate: you pay if the committee confirms it, and get your money back if it doesn’t. A seller confident in the stamp will usually agree.