THE FORGED UNAUTHORIZED REPRINTED AND MODERN FAKE SAINT VINCENT BEQUIA 1985 LEADERS OF THE WORLD DOGS STAMP ISSUES

I have discovered that there is a forged unauthorized reprinted version of the 1985 Dogs issue that is very different from the original versions. I have also recently discovered that modern forgery stamps of this issue are also being flooded onto the market. In essence the forged unauthorized reprints were made by/for a stamp dealer named Clive Feigenbaum. I can tell you that real dangerous forgeries are being flooded on the market as I rewrite this page in September of 2015.

The first section will be on the unauthorized reprints. The second section will be on the newly discovered forgeries of this issue.

SECTION 1
THE UNAUTHORIZED REPRINTS

According to the reprint agreement started in 1987 the artwork and all other materials including the Format Printers Company Logo were still held under the legal ownership of Clive Feigenbaum who had the reproductions done. The reprint agreement gave sole right to the owners of said materials to reprint at their discretion even under a different companies name. Even though the reprinting was done long after the Format Printers closed their doors the Company Logo found on the panes of the reprints was legally applied.
At least in the United Kingdom. Not in Montserrat, Tuvalu or any other country stamps were printed for though!
The ownership supposedly extended beyond the time of the Format Printers existence.
Is it really legal to do such a thing? Absolutely not! Not without describing them as what they are when sold. Copies of the genuine stamps with no postal validity at all!
One thing about this reprint agreement. It was signed between the last owner of Philatelists Ltd. who was and always has been in association with Clive Feigenbaum. It was signed by Clive Feigenbaum as the last owner of PDC (Philatelic Distribution Corp.) to himself, the last owner of London and New York International Stamp Company Limited. In other words it is a scam to try to legitimize criminal activity!

The reasons why the forged unauthorized reprinting was done at a later date is a mystery. One rumor has it that it was out of revenge for the originals being suspiciously sold outside the liquidation procedures at the time of the liquidation of the Format Security Printers. There was certain animosities between the owner, Mr. Clive Feigenbaum, and certain stamp dealers associated with Philatelists Ltd.. It is only rumor and we will leave it at that. It is interesting though as the stamps at the time really did not have a huge selling record and plenty were already available. Thus....why reprint them? Of course birds on stamps is a popular thematic and possibly they were reproduced for the purpose of future sales of thematics and inspired by greed.

They were reproduced after Format closed the doors and at present there is no evidence that the Format Printers ever reprinted the set. Therefore, very few original proofs, progressive color proof sets, etc; exist. The majority come from this forged unauthorized reprinting.

So to finish the story for this set some of the original plates were used (and I note have never been found to this day) and thus they are very difficult to define at first glance except for one thing! The perforations differ and many other factors are different as you will see.

Are they forgeries? YES, because even though the original image plates were used, the inscription plates were reproduced as you will see. Therefore they must be sold as "FORGERIES".

TO THE SELLERS

I present this page so all stamp collectors and sellers will know what to look for accordingly and will price and describe the forgeries accordingly. I do not have information on the quantities produced but do know that it is at least as large as the originals due to percentages offered on the market. Most of the errors, progressives color proofs and proofs themselves are from the reproductions. Without full comparison to the following defined descriptions, you as sellers should take the responsibility of describing these forged unauthorized reprints with accurate descriptions and stop selling them with vague and/or no description. You need to describe the issues as either the originals or the forged unauthorized reprints. If you do not, and you are selling them, it is unethical and unfair to collectors and dealers in stamps as a whole.
Members of the APS, PTS etc. could find their reputations tarnished should it be found that you are selling under suspicious behavior and breaking Codes of Ethics in the trade by not describing these forged unauthorized reprints properly simply because of your lack of knowledge or because of greed.

TO ALL AUCTION SITES

Please, police these issues and the sellers who are not describing these correctly need to be stopped. If they do not describe them accurately, they need to have their lots removed from sale until corrections are made. They are easy to define as you will see below just by the images. If the seller uses blurry or very small images they should not be trusted and should be warned. It will take time for the problem to be corrected but it can be done as long as the collecting community works together as a whole. This problem spans over almost thirty years now! Don't you think it is time to stop the problem?

TO THE BUYERS

Please be aware before purchasing this issue. If you purchase it, be sure to compare them as soon as you receive them to be sure the seller did not fool you with an image of the originals and then sends you the forged unauthorized reprints. This has happened to many collectors because some dealers are just plain out to rip you off! Request a refund and return them. If the seller continually does this then they need to be reported and exposed. I am sorry to say, but because of the immoral actions of one person, it is up to you as a buyer to make sure you don't get ripped off! Apparently most dealers, leaders of stamp societies, auction sites and so called "experts" want to ignore the problems caused by this individual and so now over 50% of this issue offered on the market are either forged unauthorized reprints or forgeries of bad quality printing in all regards.

TO THE STAMP CATALOG MAKERS

You need to define these in your notations about their existence. At present you do not even note they exist thus your catalogs do not help the collecting community to figure out what they are nor how to define the differences. Stanley Gibbons notes the forged unauthorized reprints for the St. Vincent Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley issues but does not note it for this issue and other issues I have discovered.
Scott catalog does not even note them at all! Probably because most of the forged unauthorized reprints were sold to American stamp dealers. I guess they are trying to save face or something by not noting their existence, possibly because of influence by these same dealers who wish to continue to rip off collectors like you and me.

I must state at this point, that on the quantities of these forged unauthorized reprints the standard would probably be the same as on the Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives series. Basing on the Format Printers practices at the time for reprints.
1.) The reprinting would be 21,000 sets perforated.
2.) 5,000 sets of imperforate proofs.
3.) 2,000 sets perforated with specimen overprint.
4.) 1,000 sets imperforate with specimen overprint
5.) 3,000 sets of Progressive Color Proofs.
6.) A possibility of made for collector errors as in missing colors or misperfs, of which standard practices would produce 3,000 of a given value or values.

It is probable that the same standard of quantity production has been followed with the reproductions after the Format Printers closed their doors forever for this issue.

UPDATE July 2018

In my work to eradicate the sales of the forged unauthorized reprints and forgeries unless properly described on eBay and such I made a new discovery for this issue. A seller on Delcampe was offering this set with upper left corner margins. I saw immediately that they were the forged unauthorized reprints because the 25c value has the same style of color guide as other forged unauthorized reprints have been shown to have. This color guide was never used by the original printer. Here is an image.

The only color guides used by the Format Printers on this issue are the number and letter guides you can see at the bottom of the pane imaged near the bottom of this page.

Now here is what is strange. The set that I received has 25 holes rather than the 27 holes!
We can see also that the screen patterns differ. Either the printer "upgraded" or the 2nd forgery printing was made at a different location. It was probably an "upgrade" designed to make the forged reprints more deceptive. Either way this is proof that more of these forged unauthorized reprints were made than originally thought for this issue. It also means collectors and dealers will have to look a little closer when counting the perforation holes as the version with 25 holes is very close to the genuine 24 hole stamps.

END July Update

On with the original forged unauthorized reprint section I wrote in 2012.

LET'S GET STARTED!

ALL THE FOLLOWING IMAGES WERE SCANNED AT 600dpi AND RESIZED IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY WITH NO COLOR ALTERATIONS.

How to Identify the Forged Unauthorized Reprints of the Saint Vincent Bequia 1985 Dogs Stamps

This guide was written with the purpose of:
(i) helping buyers to identify the forged unauthorized reprints which have been on the market for over 25 years now;
(ii) protecting the interests of genuine dealers everywhere who don't sell fakes or forgeries or unauthorized reprints without defining them as such;
(iii) protecting the integrity and interests of the Saint Vincent Philatelic Bureau.

It is unknown at this time when these forged unauthorized reprint stamps first appeared. Because they have the exact same characteristics as the forged unauthorized reprints of the St. Vincent Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley stamp sets, there is a 100% probability they came onto the market in the same timeframe. Clive Feigenbaum had access to the original artwork transparencies and printing plates separations and for this set the original plates of the images so the forged unauthorized reprints are of fair quality. The stamps are more than capable of not being detected by most dealers, stamp collectors, and Dog topical collectors. There are however, a number of distinguishing features on the reproductions (that are illustrated below), which make them easy to identify from the original stamps.

By the way, the stamps illustrated above are all forged unauthorized reprints!

Also these are found as imperforate proofs, progressive color proofs and in some cases as "errors" with misperfs etc;. No inverts were ever made by the Format Printers nor by Clive Feigenbaum for this issue.

These forged unauthorized reprints should not be valued by anyone! They were created by a stamp dealer intent on ripping you off!
This newly discovered reprinting will now cause the original stamp sets to become more valuable as demand for them will rise. Who wants shoddy reprint forgeries?
I would value the reprints at nothing. This is true "wallpaper". At the time of this webpage creation approximately 50% of sales on the market contain the forged unauthorized reprints. Others may try to disagree, but as time will tell it will be according to what the market decides....not the sellers nor "experts" as obviously there are none or this would have been known and taken care of long ago.
I guess you could say....I am the expert on these now.

(1) Scott 178 25c Se-Tenant Pair
Hungarian Kuvasz and Afghan

When compared side-by-side with the original stamps, the reprint stamps look very good and use a richer set of colors allowing for more contrast in the photographs. However, don't let the colors fool you!


Rule Number One (and probably the only rule needed unless comparing proofs) when identifying the forged unauthorized reprints is to COUNT THE PERFORATIONS! Since most of these stamps are sold in se-tenant (joined) pairs, simply count the number of holes along the vertical join. For the original stamps, there are 24 Holes (i.e. 25 Perforations), whereas the forged unauthorized reprints have 27 Holes (i.e. 28 perforations). The holes in the forged unauthorized reprints are thus noticeably smaller, and there is a tendency for all holes not to be completely punched out.


In addition to the perforations being different, the forged unauthorized reprints have a honeycomb pattern throughout the image and the details are blurred (see above); while the originals do not have a pattern and are much more detailed.

These forged unauthorized reprints are much better quality than the Elvis and Michael forged unauthorized reprints as the images and everything are in proper proportions. Because of this they are harder to detect without looking very closely at them. If one does not have a genuine set of originals to compare they can easily slip by.

Some other subtle differences to look out for are:
1.) Darker / heavier Font for all inscriptions on the reprint forgeries;
2.) The background is much whiter on the reprint forgeries versus a touch of gray white on the originals;
3.) Much deeper and richer colors on the dogs on the originals than on the reprint forgeries.
4.) The reddish color between the bars where the country name and denomination are on the reprint forgeries is darker than on the originals
5.) The frame color is light blue on the originals versus very light green on the reprint forgeries.

(2) Scott 179 35c Se-Tenant Pair
Whippet and Bloodhound

Again use RULE #1 (Count the Perforations) as above. Again, the forged unauthorized reprints have 27 holes compared to the original pair's 24 holes.


Again in addition to the perforations being different, the forged unauthorized reprint stamps have a honeycomb pattern throughout the image and the details are blurred (see above); while the originals do not have a pattern and are much more detailed. Other similar features as noted above are also on this value.
In addition the the framing colors are deeper blue-gray and green on the originals than on the forged unauthorized reprints. Without magnification they are difficult to discern though.

(3) Scott 180 55c Se-Tenant Pair
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and German Shepherd

Again, the forged unauthorized reprint stamps are instantly recognizable by the number of perforations (27 Holes instead of 24) and demonstrate the same features of printing as the closeup shows.
Noting on this value that the original frame color is a light purple versus a pinkish color on the forged unauthorized reprint.

(4) Scott 181 $2.00 Se-Tenant Pair
Pekinese and Golden Retriever

Here again on the $2.00 values we have similar differences.

What is extremely surprising to me is that nobody seems to have even noticed that the forged unauthorized reprint $2.00 value has reddish color between the bars where the country name and denomination are versus the originals which have it in GREEN!
For how many years has such an obvious difference gone un-noticed by dealers and "experts"?


This sums up the demonstration on how to identify the forged unauthorized reprints of the Bequia 1985 Dogs stamps. As you can see, you do not have to be an expert philatelist to be able to do this. You do not even have to be a collector at all! The differences between the original stamps and the forged unauthorized reprints is quite obvious. Please read on to learn about the forgery stamps being circulated as of 2015.

I hope that this reference page on the Saint Vincent Bequia 1985 Dogs forged unauthorized reprints will assist all collectors, dealers and memorabilia collectors in defining and choosing which sets they have or are buying.

Please refer this page to all of your stamp collecting friends and acquaintances to help get the word out.

Here are links to all the other LOTW issues that were discovered to have been reprinted without authorization in the early 1990's after the Format International Security Printers went Bankrupt.

SECTION 2

THE SAINT VINCENT BEQUIA 1985 LEADERS OF THE WORLD DOGS FORGERY STAMPS

Saint Vincent Bequia 1985 Dogs Inverted Frame Error Forgery Stamp Set

UPDATE MAY 2018

Well, as I thought more inverts are on the market! Recently many inverts have appeared including as I predicted fake Leaders of the World Trains and cars inverts for Nevis. Some are even appearing with Calves Expertising Certificates! BOGUS! Two appeared in the recent Gaertner auctions and now a seller on Delcampe posted the imaged set and around twenty more different fake inverts. Have shut all of them down. Sadly now, one of the biggest dealers in France just got victimized showing us that everyone no matter how big or small is being effected by this. It shows us that the consignor that was shut down at Gaertner's in 2015 and had these forgeries sent back to him has just released them to more victims this year! The seller on Delcampe wants anywhere from 400EURO to 1000EURO for a set! I wonder how much he got ripped off for. Don't be fooled by the certificate. They are worth nothing! Again, very obvious they are forgeries. Look at the selvage. As I explain on many of the other detection pages for most of the forgeries and this one, there are no perforation holes running through the selvage on the forgeries like on genuine panes of these stamps.

Noting these look like some sort of color proof stage. Since the Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley invert forgeries have recently appeared as "color proofs" more than likely you will see the Bequia Dogs invert forgeries in a similar fashion and this is just one stage. The problem is they are perforated. Yet another fake error this forger wants to try to fool you with.

END MAY 2018 UPDATE

I have found documented proof dated April 2015 that at least 10,000 inverted frame error forgery sets have been moved onto the market!

My research into the printer has enabled me to discover modern fake stamps have been created in 2014!! They are being spread across the world through online auction sites like eBay and Delcampe. Everything about them is fake except for one dangerous fact, they have the correct perf size. The gum type is different in it being white in color and very shiny. This gum type was not used until much later years, long after Format went bankrupt thus proving they were not produced by the Format International Security Printers. Obvious differences will be shown below. So far I have discovered fake inverted frame errors of the Saint Vincent Bequia Dogs issue. All are being offered online right now as I write this on September 1, 2015.

I can also tell you that I have discovered that many more "modern" issues for Saint Vincent and other countries are being forged. Mainly varieties and "errors" of the issues which bring in higher profits although normal issues are also being faked in some cases. All are being produced by the same source which is unknown at present. All are dangerous forgeries because the perf sizes are correct. Images shown on auction sites cannot be trusted because they cannot be defined by counting perforations and unless you have a comparable image of the originals they cannot be recognized by the images given by sellers. This includes Audubon Birds issues including inverted frames, Dogs inverts, Flowers inverts, Michael Jackson inverts, and many more.

ANY INFORMATION TO TRACE THE SOURCE OF THESE FORGERIES WILL BE POSTED TO THE PROPER RESOURCES

At present sellers on eBay, Delcampe, Bonanza, and Amazon are offering them. I am sure other sources are now selling them also. A list of these sellers is being compiled and at some point the source may be revealed. At this time unless the sellers stop selling them (which is doubtful) it is up to you as a buyer to refuse to buy them without proper identification. In other words, make the seller send you 1200dpi images of the front and back of the stamps and then compare them with my images. I have posted more pages on the issues I have discovered to be forged and have included an index page listing them with links.

New information is welcome and you may contact me through this website anytime.

Recently I noticed sales of the Bequia Dogs issue with inverted frame errors being sold at the 99c start bid on eBay in lots of 4 sets from panes. I missed out because buyers out bid me several times but I purchased a set directly from another seller recently who was selling them before the other bulk seller started selling them. I was not amazed to find it is from a completely different printing than the original and reprint shown above! This is because I have become quite attuned to what to look for and have purchased other forgeries of this type from this seller already. The colors, screens, fonts and gum completely differ.
Here are gum comparisons.

Gum Comparison of a Fake with Original
This gum appears to still be PVA but without the greenish tint. It has been noted that other British issues like some of the Machin issues have this type of gum. The problem is it was not used until the late 90's. The gum is very shiny though which conflicts with the description of the gum known as PVAI (Layflat) used on the Machins. Yet the stamps lay perfectly flat on a surface whereas originals have a light bending from aging.
This is evidence showing even a later creation and since these did not appear on the market until 2014 and no such invert errors have ever been on the market nor recorded, it proves these to be modern forgeries of the stamps.


Gum Comparison of the Original, Unauthorized Reprint and Forgery of the 1985 Leaders of the World Dogs Stamps
Again there is an obvious difference in color and texture.


Screen and Color Comparison of the Forgery Stamp with Original Stamp
I will use the 25c Afghan for displaying differences.

Note the extreme difference in color on the forgery. The blue versus greenish frame. The dot patterns. Quite obvious.


Screen and Color Comparison of the Forgery Stamp with the Unauthorized Reprint Stamp
This is another reason why the forgery stamps are so dangerous. You can see that the forgery uses a better screen pattern than the unauthorized reprint from 1991. Please note the extreme difference in color on the forgery stamp. The unauthorized reprint at least has a closer frame color to the original! The dot patterns are extremely different.
The forgeries are kind of like a photocopy of the originals but use a lower quality screen, are on whiter paper and have a shiny surface over the face.


Perforation Comparison of Forgery Stamp with Original
The forgeries have bit cleaner cut holes than the originals. Aside from the forgeries being perforated with a different machine this is most likely due to the originals being produced on much more fibrous, heavier and thicker paper and gum.
Note the black frame lines are thicker and they are closer together on the forgery.


You can see that there is a lot of differences between the three printings.

One buyer of these forgeries purchased a large lot from one of the biggest and most reputable stamp sellers on eBay. He bought what he thought was the complete print run of one "newly discovered" error in full panes in packets of 200 panes which were unopened.
I am sorry to say that there are several ways proving these were never produced by the Format Printers.
Firstly the packaging is wrong. Here is the image he sent me.


The plastic wrapping is a flexible plastic used today. Format packaged all stamp panes in very brittle hard plastic that tears easily when opened. The separation paper is brown. Format always used pink/red paper to separate and protect the panes and souvenir sheets.

The perforations on the panes are wrong

Here is an image of a Saint Vincent Bequia 1985 Dogs stamp pane from the original printing.


Now here is an image of a corner block set of the forged Bequia 1985 Dogs inverted frame error stamps with color Guides.


Now look at the image of the pane and the image of the forged stamp blocks with selvage shown above. Can you see the difference?
The perforations run through the selvage on the original pane on all sides. There are no perforations on the selvage of the forged corner blocks at all!
Indeed several values do not have the perforations running through the selvage where the color guide is, but several like the pane imaged do!

I have not purchased any normal stamps of this issue that are forged but the probability they are on the market is very real.

Because of the fact that a major portion of leaders in the stamp community wish to turn a blind eye on these forgeries. Because of dealers and buyers who are afraid to "step up to the plate" because of fear of being ridiculed by self proclaimed "experts" or because they don't want to get involved, the forgers will continue to forge more and more sets. They have already effected other issues that have nothing to do with Leaders of the World issues such as Nauru 1982 Scouts, Barbuda 1983 Manned Flight and others showing us the wide range of stamps they are capable of forging and possibly have already forged. Soon you will be the victim when you buy that fake high valued Orchid stamp or that high priced definitive set you have dreamed of getting or what you thought to be a genuine error or variety which in the end only turns out to be fabricated by these forgers and nobody wants it when you go to sell it or your children go to sell it.

You have a choice.

Continue to ignore this problem that the majority of stamp leaders and editors seem to be trying to do just like they have with unauthorized reprints and "illegal" stamps in the past. Or spread the word and complain to your contacts and leaders that these problems need to be exposed and described in magazines, newspapers and catalogs before every stamp issue made in modern times from the 1970's onward falls victim to being a suspected forgery and in turn you or your friends or associates will fall victim to it when trying to buy or sell them. These forgers are professionals and have been here for decades unseen. They will continue to harm us unless people like you stand up and take notice!

This problem effects everyone because now instead of the value being based on a set quantity of the issued stamp, we now have double, triple or even more in quantity placed on the market. It will therefore depreciate the stated value of them in the catalogs simply because they will not research them and "assume" there are tons available when in reality for many sets the originals are and have become difficult to find.

I am simply the one who discovered them because of my research on the printer.
Indeed several issues that I have researched and obtained the original varieties of are effected. Mainly these fake imperforates. I am a professional tradesman and have never depended on stamps to live on. There are many that do depend on stamp sales though and it is for them also that I have created this section of the website.

You can now define the forgeries of the Saint Vincent Bequia Dogs stamps easily (inverted or not) and can now possibly avoid being ripped off! Sorry to say this, a lot of you already have been fooled and more of you will be until the right people get serious about it!

Here are links to images of each stamp with an original next to a forgery. All are scanned at 1200dpi so the files are large. All were scanned at the same time with the same settings and nothing is enhanced. Please be patient with downloading them because each file is around 5 megs.

Your friend and fellow collector and researcher,
JLowe RETURN TO TOP

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