Philatelic fakes and forgeries

To a large extent the definitions below are consistent with those given in the introduction to various recent editions of the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue.

For Karabagh which is not a member of the UPU but which does get its mail delivered, this demonstrate that the stamps it issues are neither propaganda labels nor part of a money-making scam.

Major steps include: It may not be possible to distinguish between a philatelic and postal forgery if the stamps are unused, merely by looking at them; the techniques utilized in producing them are identical.

A person who is able to identify some of the most obvious forgeries can save a lot of money in expertising fees, though the information may not yet be enough to establish that a stamp is genuine.

The values of 5, 10 and 15 pfennigs of the then Bavarian postage stamp issue with the portrait of Ludwig III fell victim to war mail forgeries.

Forgeries of German East Africa stamps were produced, which showed the imprint "G. E. A. BRITISH OCCUPATION" and a new value in cents.

The stamps were apparently intended to put the massive German resistance in the colony of Deutsch-Ostafrika into perspective and to propagate an early occupation of the whole area.

The German embassy in Bern felt compelled to deny the article and accuse the newspaper of having fallen for a forgery, which, according to subsequent evidence, was without doubt the case.

[15] Forgeries of the Silver Jubilee issue of 1935 were falsified at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp by order of Heinrich Himmler during the war.

Similarly, the Hitler block from 1937 was altered to show a death head, graves, and gallows; the inscription is Deutsches Reich 1944.

Great Britain produced forgeries for Germany, France, Italy, Poland (Generalgouvernement), and French Morocco during World War II.

However, even this measure did not lead to the desired success and the action turned out to be a complete failure, as practically nobody believed in the alleged Himmler overthrow.

On June 10, 1944, US agent Allan Dulles prepared a detailed report for his superior in Washington in which he described the mysterious stamp.

[16] The Jewish concentration camp inmate Adolf Burger, who had participated in Operation Bernhard, commented after the war that Heinrich Himmler was very indignant about this British forgery with his portrait.

However, some postcards and envelopes were made by the British secret service PWE, which were prepared with attached Himmler stamps and faked German cancellations.

Regarding France, Britain produced forgeries of the Iris series and of stamps depicting Marshal Philippe Pétain.

Probably already at the beginning of 1943 the PWE also produced a war forgery of the Italian stamp with the image of King Victor Emanuel III.

French-controlled Morocco received stamps forged by the British authorities that had overprints of Deutsche Reichspost in Marokko to create confusion and suggest an imminent German occupation.

Apparently to his personal satisfaction, he engraved the very small and inconspicuous letters "AABB" and "AAAA" in the four corners of the ½ as well as of the 1 penny stamps.

After the war, Rybot explained that he had inserted the secret letters in order to strengthen the fighting spirit of the British, who were informed about the forgery.

According to his statement, the letters "AABB" were to represent an abbreviation for the words "Adolphe Atrox" (Latin for "Cruel Adolf") and "Bloody Benito".

[17] Between 1948 and 1954 a group founded by Werner Hildebrandt produced anti-communist propaganda including stamps that were used in the postal system of East Germany (GDR).

Remainders are surplus stocks of legitimate postage stamps that are put on the philatelic market after ceasing to be valid for postal purposes.

Among these are the "issues" for South Moluccas when Henry Stolow printed the Maluku Selatan stamps, and for the uninhabited Scottish island of Staffa.

Thus, in the earliest set of Hong Kong stamps the forgeries can be distinguished by counting the number of shading lines in the background.

Modern electronic techniques would appear to make things easier for the forger, but understanding how different printing methods work can be very helpful in discovering these forgeries.

In some cases a genuine stamp can have a fake cancellation applied to make it appear to be a rare, and valuable postally used example.

Some very high face values on such stamps could not reasonably have been used for postage, thus making any kind of proper postal usage exceedingly rare.

More commonly these high face values were for fiscal usages to indicate the payment of taxes on real estate or corporate shares.

Rainer Blüm was sentenced recently in a high-profile German legal case for forgery of postmarks to increase the value of stamps.