GUINEA REPUBLIC ILLEGAL STAMPS
1999

Information and Reference of illegal stamps dating 1999 for the Republic of Guinea according to U.P.U. Circular 421 and other resources

On December 8, 2003 the postal administration for the Republic of Guinea by request to K.J.S. McKeown (Director of Markets) posted to the Universal Postal Union a circular warning of the discovery of a large number of illegal stamps created with their country name that are on the market. The circular is number 421. You can view it in the linked file below:

UPU Circular Number 421

Because there is so much confusion on this country you should use a respectable catalog like Scott or Stanley Gibbons. Do not listen to these dealers trying to convince you the following displayed stamps (that are watermarked "ILLEGAL STAMPS") are something other than counterfeit illegal stamps. Because in many cases Michel is the only catalog listing certain issues I do not trust them as a reliable source. The same goes for Yvert. In the majority of cases with this countries stamps that are suspect of being illegal, just try to find a genuinely used one on a cover. You will find it.....impossible.

None of the Republic of Guinea stamps are listed on the UPU's WNS system. This is because none of them follow the rules set forth by the UPU for stamp printing.

I have found the Colnect online catalog to be helpful but confusing. Over 12,000 listings there now caused by the abusive stamp agencies.

The Colnect Online Catalog for Guinea Republic

Check out their Illegal Stamp section as well. It is far from complete but will help you verify many as well.

The Colnect Online Catalog for Guinea Republic Illegal Stamps

I have found the Stampworld.com Catalog to be helpful as well. Noting they stopped listing after 2013. This is probably because all the Stamperija issues are sold directly through the agent and not used in the Republic as stated on the Colnect site for the later years.

The Stampworld Online Catalog for Guinea Republic

Many of the following illegal stamps can be found as imperforates and as color proof sets as well. Many exist on fake First Day Covers too.
Most times now (2021) 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.

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.

1999

In 1999 production of the illegal stamps in the name of the Republic of Guinea virtually stopped. The reasons are unknown yet it is possible that the huge mess made by Juan Montero and the Mayfair International printings of the 1998 stamps attracted so much attention he ran away and hid. It is also possible that seeing the major profits being reaped in on the "copyright" sets made in 1998, the concentration was put into making more of them in 1999 and holding off on making any more illegal stamps in the name of the Republic of Guinea until things "cooled down".

In 1999 IGPC stamp agency continued to dominated. We see that numerous sets produced by Impressor S.A. are being listed by Michel and Yvert and not listed by Scott and Stanley Gibbons. This continues to shows us there is a huge problem with the catalogs listings. I theorize again that as Impressor has done in the past with a number of countries, they were continuing to produce stamps in the name of the Republic of Guinea without authorization because IGPC held the contract. We are seeing this pattern unfold yet again with the Republic of Guinea.

I found very few illegal stamps dating 1999 but we can see another huge production of the "copyright" issues was made which again only appear to be listed in the Michel catalogs. You would think that being as popular as the topics are and the promotions made by the International Collectors Society (ICS) at the time here in the U.S.A., that the Scott catalogs would have jumped to include them in the catalogs. This is a definite sign that there is something seriously wrong with them. I do note though that IGPC is still listing the Garfield set on their website. None of the others.

On the stamp market today in August 2021 we again see huge price differences on them. One dealer asking near $30.00 for a sheet of 9 where another is asking near $5.00 for the exact same one and will accept even a lower offer. A few selling at the low price. None selling at the higher prices.

The abusive (possibly unauthorized) Impressor S.A. issues dominate on all the venues for this year. The illegal stamps I found are few as far as offers and of course mainly offered by the "little mafia" dealers I reference in the introduction. On this page I will present the illegal stamps first and then the "copyright" sets that are a problem. Advice again is to avoid them and the dealers who are selling them.

For the illegal stamps, here is who I found selling them in 2021. I note that there are a number of dealers trying to peddle the illegal 1998 stamps as 1999 issues. More than likely to avoid detection but then it could just be sloppy selling. Those I am not listing here. For the most part I found nobody selling them on eBay except for one past sale. Nobody on Delcampe, but then there is Hipstamps.

On eBay

ilmars55 located in Latvia selling the horses

On Hipstamps

Bentley1Stamp located in the UK selling fake "proofs"

1999 Cats Illegal Stamp Souvenir Sheet of 9



1999 Cats Illegal Stamp Souvenir Sheet of 1



1999 Dinosaurs Illegal Stamp Souvenir Sheets of 9

This Bentley1Stamp character wants to call these "final proofs" They are nothing but worthless illegal stamps that were never marketed. Rather than throw them away, this con wants $30.00+ each for them! Avoid!





1999 Horses Illegal Stamp Set

These are shown in the Colnect Cinderella section.

Copyright Stamps

In 1999 numerous popular topical sets were created in the name of the Republic of Guinea using copyrighted characters and shows. As shown on the introduction page the majority of the copyright permissions were obtained by the International Collectors Society (ICS). From there it gets murky as to who printed the sets and if they were ever even authorized by the postal authorities.
Only Michel catalogs appear to be listing them. None are listed in the Scott and Stanley Gibbons catalogs. Why? Repeating IGPC held the contract in 1999 yet as we see in sales online Impressor 1999 issues dominate stamp sales for the Republic of Guinea 1999 issues. None of them look even close to what these are. I note that none are being shown on the Colnect online catalog. Why? All are being shown on the Stampworld online catalog and the Postbeeld Free Stamps catalog. Noting I can find no reference to Yvert numbers on them anywhere.

Again, I must state these were definitely made to gain profits from collectors only. The permissions gained in the U.S., and sold from the U.S..
Noting quite a few sellers are stating they are made in 1998. Look at the year inscribed on the stamps sheeesh! Here is who is selling them in 2021 in simple searches by the topic like "Guinea Babe Ruth" or "Guinea Cal Ripkin".

On eBay

clueso located in the US
paulette48qd located in the US
cfdjoh3 located in the US
the_link_to_the_past located in the US
356cherokeetrail located in the US
kenemilyg located in Canada
ocd4everything located in the US
indymom located in the US
chrimalot located in the US
mwclise8taz located in the US
imperialmintny located in the US
stampsfromicha located in the US
mytreasures1605 located in the US
flay2710 located in Canada
carlswain located in the US
enolalla located in the US
rosies_resale_592 located in the US
lordofspe_66 located in the US

We can see most of the sellers again are in the U.S.A.. We can see most appear again to be people trying to get their money back from the scam. We can also see the user paulette48qd is the main seller who has numerous copies of many of these sets without certificates and has been selling them for years in sale lots containing 10 or more copies.

On Delcampe Past and Present

stocksatmplover located in China
gazmito located in Poland
bigbeach located in Canary Islands (No longer a member)
artshop1973 located in Spain (Kicked off for selling counterfeits)
bentley1stamp located in the UK. (Kicked off for selling counterfeits)
princestamps located in Spain
stampjoyenterprise located in Malaysia
postbeeldcom located in the Netherlands
martinezsmith located in Spain
wakko15 located in the US. (kicked off for selling counterfeits)
stampsdiscovery located in the US. (kicked off for selling counterfeits)
outletstamps located in Spain
skleshev located in Russia
customimpressions located in the US

We can see that on Delcampe most of the sellers are illegal stamp dealers who were/are selling them of which as noted some are gone.

On Hipstamps

Bentley1Stamp located in the UK
artstamps located in the UK (aka Isabeldelatour who is Montero)
Newshop2012 located in Spain
Dakota located in the US
carlswain located in the US

Yes, we see three notorious illegal stamp dealers selling some of them on Hipstamps.

Because these are not listed on the Colnect website and not listed in Scott and SG catalogs, I could not find any specific date of issue for the following sets. Just as quickly as these International Collector Society sets appeared they disappeared. No more being produced after 1999. Why? All are not watermarked with the illegal stamps watermark only because they are listed in Michel. That status can change.

Guinea Republic 1999 Babe Ruth Baseball Legend Souvenir Sheet of 9
Michel Catalog No. 2254-2262



Guinea Republic 1999 Babe Ruth Baseball Legend Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL572



Guinea Republic 1999 Babe Ruth Baseball Legend Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL573



Guinea Republic 1999 Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball Legend Souvenir Sheet of 9
Michel Catalog No. 2223-2231



Guinea Republic 1999 Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball Legend Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL591



Guinea Republic 1999 Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball Legend Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL592



Guinea Republic 1999 Captain America Souvenir Sheet of 9
Michel Catalog No. 2296-2304



Guinea Republic 1999 Captain America Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL578



Guinea Republic 1999 Garfield Souvenir Sheet of 9
Michel Catalog No. no reference, Yvert Catalog No. no reference



Guinea Republic 1999 Garfield Souvenir Sheets of 1
Michel Catalog No. no reference, Yvert Catalog No. BF203-204

Only one seller referenced the Yvert number. So were these not listed in Michel and listed in Yvert?



Guinea Republic 1999 Joe Jackson Baseball Legend Souvenir Sheet of 9
Michel Catalog No. 2412-2420



Guinea Republic 1999 Joe Jackson Baseball Legend Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL589



Guinea Republic 1999 Joe Jackson Baseball Legend Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL590



Guinea Republic 1999 Spiderman Souvenir Sheet of 9
Michel Catalog No. 2265-2273



Guinea Republic 1999 Spiderman Souvenir Sheet of 9 on Fake First Day Cover
Michel Catalog No. 2265-2273

The reason this is a fake cover is simple. The "First Day of Issue" cancel is dated July 26, 2007. The Hawaii National Park cancel is 2010.
The Philatelic Boutique cancels are not official.



Here is a note on it provided by the seller of them. I would not pay 50c for it.

Guinea Republic 1999 Spiderman Souvenir Sheet of 9 on Fake First Day Cover Description



Guinea Republic 1999 Spiderman Souvenir Sheet of 9
Michel Catalog No. 2274-2282



Guinea Republic 1999 Spiderman Souvenir Sheet of 9 on Fake First Day Cover
Michel Catalog No. 2274-2282



Guinea Republic 1999 Spiderman Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL574



Guinea Republic 1999 Spiderman Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL575



Guinea Republic 1999 The Three Stooges Souvenir Sheet of 9
Michel Catalog No. 2243-2251



Guinea Republic 1999 The Three Stooges Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL570



Guinea Republic 1999 The Three Stooges Souvenir Sheet of 1
Michel Catalog No. BL571



Because these sets have such a dark past, are not listed in Scott and Stanley Gibbons catalogs, were overproduced with it not known how many actually exist, and have such a high fluctuation in prices offered by various sellers, it is advised to avoid them.

The production of counterfeit illegal stamps in the name of the Republic of Guinea continued to be low in 2000. One set that is very popular and massively being sold is sadly not what it seems.

View Next Page here!

References taken from:
U.P.U. Circular No. 421
Major Stamp Catalogs
Internet Research

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