THE MODERN FAKE BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS 1985 85TH BIRTHDAY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH STAMP ISSUES

British Virgin Islands 1985 Leaders of the World Life and Times of the Queen Mother Imperforate Forgery Set
Scott# 509-516 Stanley Gibbons# 579-586

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

Inverted Frame Error Forgery Set

I have recently discovered that modern fake stamps of this issue are being flooded onto the market. I can tell you that real dangerous fakes or some call forgeries are being flooded on the market as I write this page in November of 2015.
All the stamps imaged above are fakes!

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 complete sets of forgeries of the Virgin Islands Leaders of the World 1985 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth issues as imperforates and invert errors. Because the invert errors exist it is certain that the normal issue has also been forged. All are being offered online right now as I write this on November 7, 2015.

I have found documentation that 10,000 imperforate sets were released on the market back in April of this year.

I can also tell you that I have discovered that many more "modern" issues for Nevis 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 now many 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 the Audubon Birds issues including inverted frames, Dogs inverts, Flowers inverts, Michael Jackson inverts, imperforates 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.

This is a bit different than other issues I have written about. On March 14 of this year I purchased from a different large volume Latvian seller on eBay strips of 5 pairs of the imperforate Virgin Islands 85th Birthday issue. I got them for $3.85. Just bought them along with other Format related issues and put them away in my collections. It was soon after that I made the discovery that other issues, namely starting with the Nevis Spitfire issues, were being flooded onto the market.
Here is an image of what I got.


I recently (a couple months ago) noticed sales of the Virgin Islands Leaders of the World 85th Birthday issues as imperforates being sold on eBay from another dealer based in Latvia. This dealer is also a large volume dealer and was and is offering them in bulk lots of 5, 10 pairs all still attached. The starting bid is 99c! The quantity of the lots was increased in numbers of pairs and in the number of lots being offered. Buyers were and are constantly bidding them up to $3.00 to $10.00 ranges. They all are selling thus they are now everywhere in the world! Thousands have been moved!

I suspected that they are forgeries because other forgeries I have purchased from this same dealer. I knew I had the sets already from the previous purchase but had already verified the earlier purchase was indeed authentic and even watermarked! Because of my efforts to verify and trace the source I found that the Virgin Island imperforate issue of fakes indeed had been sold to the Latvian dealer. So I recently purchased another lot of the series and sure enough they are exactly the same as all the other forgeries I have written about. I got them for $5.67 winning bid. Six different bidders were in the competition for the lot. This shows us how easily these are being spread across the world. Here is an image of what I got.


This dealer is playing dumb and is persisting in selling these and many other forgeries so without naming names because of defamation retaliation and because eBay could retaliate I will have to leave it up to you collectors and dealers to do something about it.
so far I have alerted the APS, American Philatelic Magazine editors, Scott catalog editors about these forgeries. At this point they are tending to ignore it. Are you going to ignore it also?

I now have everything together to present to you how to detect them and not get ripped off!!

Here are gum comparisons.

Gum Comparison of a Fake Stamp with Original
Unlike the gum on most of the forgeries that are flooding the market right now the gum is more yellowish in color on the imperforates. It is opaque though in comparison with the original gum. This type of gum has appeared on several other issues I have detected as forgeries like the St. Vincent Century of Motoring issue and several Locomotives sets. It is having a tendency to curl worse than original gum. I do not know if these were produced earlier by the forger and held until now, but they did not appear here on the market until recently. Everything else about the forgeries is the same as all the other forgeries I have described as you will see. This yellowish gum does make them harder to detect though at first glance without originals to compare with.

For the inverts...well I cannot afford to buy everything. It stands to reason though because of all the inverted frame sets I have purchased that the inverts have the white gum described on most of the other pages I have created. this would hold true on normal issues as well. Thus an easy way to detect them.



Screen, Font and Color Comparison of a Fake Stamp with an Original Stamp
Let us use the 75c stamps for high resolution comparisons. I use 1200dpi scans for viewing.
This first comparison shows you how inferior the screens are. I compare the Queen Mother's Face.


You can see that the screens used are much coarser. Much of the details are lost on the forgery. The forgeries still are very dangerous because when imaged for sale by sellers they look almost exactly the same as the originals. Buyers will think it is just the sellers scanner making them look "different". To compensate the forger uses a shinier surface on the face of the stamps.

Now let's look at the fonts.


You can see that the fonts on the forgery stamp are a bit bolder.

Now let's look at the flowers and value.


Again you can see that much of the detail is gone or indistinct on the forgery. Here you can also see that the value on the original is much thicker than on the forgery. After seeing just these comparisons I ask you....which one would you rather have?

Now I will show reduced images of the original stamps with the forgeries. At the bottom table are links to the same images at full size. To big to fit the page of course as I scanned them all at 1200dpi.

Comparison of the Fake 10c 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth Stamp Pair with the Original Stamp Pair


Now that you know what to look for it helps yes?
Notice the difference in the value fonts now?
Still you can see that most people will not even notice it which is what the forger wants!

Comparison of the Fake 25c 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth Stamp Pair with the Original Stamp Pair


Note the deeper color backgrounds on the fakes and again the fonts.

Comparison of the Fake 50c 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth Stamp Pair with the Original Stamp Pair


Note the deep green color backgrounds on the fakes versus the yellow tone on the originals.

Comparison of the Fake 75c 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth Stamp Pair with the Original Stamp Pair


This one is quite dangerous. The color is slightly deeper orange at the bottom but could slip by easily.
Still, you can see that there is a lot of differences between the two printings.

One buyer of these fakes 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.

Now here is an image of a genuine full uncut press sheet of 85th Birthday stamps.
And here is an image of British Virgin Islands 85th Birthday invert forgery stamps with corner selvage.

You can see that on genuine stamps the perforation holes run through the selvage. On the forgeries....it does not.

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 fake British Virgin Islands 1985 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother stamps easily 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. Using Scott Catalog numbers. Please be patient with downloading them because each file is around 3 to 4 megs.

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

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