François Fournier (stamp forger)

He always saw himself as the champion of the little man, the collector of modest means who could not afford the high prices demanded by dealers for the great philatelic rarities.

Fournier was happy to help these collectors fill gaps in their printed albums with an expertly produced facsimile at a fraction of the price of the real thing.

Consistent with his philosophy, and somewhat hypocritically, Fournier roundly condemned the reprinting of stamps and sale of remainders by governments as swindles against the collector which destroyed the value of the originals.

We cannot know whether Fournier was simply naive about the purpose to which his work could be put, or just chose to turn a blind eye to the obvious possibilities for fraud.

The mailing restrictions and censorship of World War I caused major problems for Fournier's business, with consignments seized and postal communications disrupted.

He died in 1927 and the Union Philatelique de Genève bought the remaining stock and equipment from Hirschburger's widow in order to prevent it falling into the wrong hands.

Students from the Geneva School of Arts and Crafts were employed to create 480[3] representative albums of Fournier's work which were sold to stamp dealers, collectors and others in 1928.