BENIN ILLEGAL STAMPS
1998

Information and Reference of Illegal Stamps for Benin Created in 1998

The following images are of illegal stamps produced for Benin. Please remember that the producers of these illegals are not only greedy, they are crude and sometimes disgusting which is the nature of these people.

To find out what stamps are real and legitimate for Benin visit the UPU WNS website and look at the Benin section.
Sadly, it has been found out that most series displayed in the 2002-3 listings which were submitted by the stamp agent were declared invalid by the Benin Postal administration and never released in Benin.

The Universal Postal Union WNS website

You can also get a very good reference of what was officially issued from the Colnect website.

The Colnect Online Catalog for Benin

Check out their Illegal Stamp section as well. It is fully complete and shows many more illegal stamps not shown here.

The Colnect Online Catalog for Benin Illegal Stamps

I have also found the StampWorld Catalog an excellent resource.

The StampWorld Online Catalog for Benin

You can also use a respectable catalog like Scott or Stanley Gibbons. Do not listen to these dealers trying to convince you they are something other than illegal stamps.

In 2004 when Benin produced circular 30 they did not know that there were more illegal stamps that were being circulated than what they listed. This has occurred for many of the victim countries. To correct it I have researched them all using the major catalog listings and the WNS system as reference to what was officially issued.

Here we go!

Many of the following illegal stamps can be found as imperforates and as color proof sets as well. Some exist on fake First Day Covers too.
Most times now (2018) the souvenir sheet sets and sheetlet sets are sold individually. Many times the stamps have been removed from the sheetlets and souvenir sheets. All of these "tactics" are used to avoid detection by UPU circular descriptions and search terms.

Sellers that call these "private", "locals", "Cinderella's", "unauthorized" are deceiving you. They are illegal stamps produced by a stamp dealer that is bent on ripping you off! Some sellers state "we offer them because they are on the market". Well how about you use a different dealer because that seller is "on the market"? If the stamp societies, auction sites and all other venues kicked these sellers off of their sites then they would have to comply or lose their ability to sell anything.

The following images are free for the use of all to use to alert the public to them. If anyone wants to make a public list of users on eBay, Delcampe and elsewhere who are selling these issues....fine by me since the UPU, PWMO and others appear to have given up or have not been updated in years.

If you have purchased any of these stamps from a dealer or if that dealer offers them, you should avoid that dealer! You will only be supporting illegal stamp makers who are only ripping you off.

1998

This is the year that the original first illegal stamps were created for Benin. Evidence shows they were created under the direction of the late Clive Feigenbaum. The reason I know this is because he was the only one selling them. He had apparent "connections" with the printer, an employee of the printer or the platemaker who made the Princess Diana Memoriam stamp sheetlet for Benin in 1998.

The actual printing company that made the Princess Diana Memoriam sheetlet eludes me. Perhaps someone has that information? During the 1990's Benin had several printers that made their stamps. Topical issues were a "hot" item and Benin was having a lot of stamps being produced. Evidence shows De la Rue was involved and I am certain that other British based printers were involved as well. This includes The House of Questa. The association with these other printing companies with Feigenbaum are certain as he was the final owner of the Format International Security Printers which was liquidated in 1990. I am the expert researcher on the company.

His associations with these printers really does not matter except for the fact that he had the following imaged illegal stamps produced in the name of Benin. the only way to do it was to gain access to the original artwork, materials and/or plates to be able to reproduce the images which were on the sheetlet. In theory I believe these to be the original prototype and experimentation to see if the production of counterfeit illegal stamps was a viable means to make profits.
Apparently.....they were.

In 1998 Benin officially issued 83 different stamp issues.

I am only showing the effected issue for reference.

Benin 1998 Princess Diana Memoriam Scott 1083
Issued July 10, 1998 in Sheetlet of 9


What Mr. Feigenbaum had produced were fake deluxe sheetlets of the individual stamps on the sheetlet. How many were produced we will never know. In the case for illegal stamps the production is probably in the thousands.

1998 Princess Diana Memoriam illegal stamps in Deluxe Souvenir Sheets of 1



The images are very low quality because they are taken from the only site in the world that has them and the images were made twenty years ago. The deluxe sheetlets were never made by the original printer of the sheetlet. They were made without authorization of the Benin postal administration. They were never "issued" and are verified to be "privately produced" making them the first illegal stamps made in the name of Benin.

Present evidence shows us that there were apparently no other issues with Benin illegal stamps being produced until the year 2001.
But there was an issue with the printer of official stamps for Benin in 2000!

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References taken from:
U.P.U. Circular No. 30
WNS Website
Major Stamp Catalogs
Internet Research

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