THE BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS 1986 60TH BIRTHDAY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II STAMP FORGERIES

British Virgin Islands 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II Forgery Set
Scott# 532-536 Stanley Gibbons# 600-603, MS604

British Virgin Islands 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II Souvenir Sheet Forgery

British Virgin Islands 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II Invert Error Forgeries

British Virgin Islands 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II Imperforate Forgeries

UPDATE October 2017

Recently I purchased a set of perforated forgeries of the stamps for this issue. I knew some time ago that they were being moved onto the market but just recently obtained the set to use for the following comparisons. Also adding user names that are selling them and a new ultra-violet light detection section. Other changes done as well.

END UPDATE October 2017

I have discovered that modern fake imperforate souvenir sheets 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 March of 2016.

New add-on
As of late 2016 fake inverts of the stamps and forgeries as perforated and imperforate stamps have also surfaced. All the stamps imaged above are forgeries!

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 forgeries of the stamps and imperforate souvenir sheets of the British Virgin Islands 1986 60th Birthday issue. They are being offered online right now as I write this on March 11, 2016.

I can also tell you that I have discovered that many more "modern" issues for the Virgin Islands 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.

The main sellers on eBay who have offered or are offering these forgeries right now.

armi777
asrm10
balticamber2011
hobbytrade
russianstampsandworld
stampbank_of_london (stampbank USA on Amazon)

I note that apparently some as you can see are the same seller using different user names.

These sellers are spamming and have been spamming eBay lots for several years now. They offer this junk at 99c start bids. Or they offer fake color proofs and fake inverts and fake imperforates for amounts that would not relate to true value of the genuine stamps. Namely because for most the genuine material was either destroyed or only found on archival press sheets of which very few were saved in the archive. Therefore, this junk offered by these sellers (which you can see nobody appears to care in the philatelic community) should be avoided because all you are doing if you buy it is to:

1.) Enable the producer of these fake reproductions to continue to rip you off!
2.) Enable sellers like these to continue to rip you off!
3.) Enable the flooding of the stamp market with these fake reproductions to the point that now over 50% and in some cases much more are now being sold to unknowing collectors and thus you are ripping off other collectors!

Recently I was alerted by a fellow collector and seller on eBay that they suspected certain stamp issues they had purchased from the Latvian based sellers on eBay listed above in bulk lots of five souvenir sheets were possibly forgeries. The seller was kind enough to donate examples for my analysis. They sent me one copy of the 60th Birthday souvenir sheet for the British Virgin Islands as an imperforate and one copy that was perforated. They also sent me a copy of Antigua and Barbuda 1984 U.P.U. Congress Flowers issue souvenir sheet as imperforate and the Lesotho 1984 Trains of the World perforated souvenir sheet. I found that both the imperforate souvenir sheets were fakes. The perforated souvenir sheets are originals.

In past dealings with these same Latvian sellers who use multiple seller accounts on eBay, I had purchased several times, the lots of five BVI 60th Birthday souvenir sheets, both perforated and imperforate, only to find them genuine which was an oddity because at the same time the sellers were selling fake version from St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Montserrat, etc..
The evidence comes to the conclusion that this seller after selling out his stock of originals, continues selling the issues as forgeries. The probability of a firm connection between the eBay seller and the one producing the Format Printers issues forgeries is very real! Both believing they have the right to continually print stamps produced by the Format Printers and sell them as genuine stamps (some sellers like Stampbank of London using the deceitful wording like "later printings") to mask the fact that they are all forgeries of the originals created to deceive dealers and collectors. These people think they have the right to do this for all eternity! When are the right people going to wake up, expose these people, and destroy this now decades old forgery ring??

The main sellers are playing dumb and are persisting in selling these and many other forgeries. Connected hand and foot are users armi777, asrm10 and raimissss and balticamber2011. The users real names are Antanas Miskinis and Raimonds Miskinis according to return addresses....business names are Argi-stamps and/or SIA stamps.

For the British Virgin Islands I have already found several different issues that have been forged. Now you can add the 1986 60th Birthday issue to the growing list. The colors, screens, fonts and gum completely differ.
I am certain that more forgeries of the British Virgin Islands issues produced by Format will surface as well.

I will use the forged British Virgin Islands imperforate souvenir sheet and a genuine imperforate souvenir sheet. If you don't know I acquired a good sized portion of the original stock of the imperforate souvenir sheets and only a few others were selling them until these Latvian sellers forgeries started appearing. Therefore unless they can prove it, almost all other sellers of the imperforate British Virgin Islands 1986 60th Birthday souvenir sheets are selling you forgeries!

The following two images are from lots sold on eBay by balticamber2011. Snapshots of the actual lots are filed so there can be no denial of the fact that this seller... sells forgeries.
I just recently (October 2017) bought forgeries of the perforated stamps from balticamber2011. Here is an image of what I got.

Here is an image from the same seller from a sold lot of imperforate forgeries. this shows you how they are being massively flooded onto the market.

For the new comparisons I am adding on this page I will use a genuine set of specimen overprinted stamps.

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

ULTRA-VIOLET LIGHT DETECTION

I have discovered another way to detect many of the forgeries. Use an ultra-violet light on them!
In many cases with all the forgeries I have posted the now many pages for, I have found that many sets glow brightly like the fluorescent papers used on many, for example, Canadian stamps in the past. A word of caution on this though. Many forgeries I have found, which all have the yellowish gum, do not glow or have lower grades of brightness or have numerous fibers in the paper that glow. In quite a few cases I have found the sets to have mixed papers, as in , several values glow and several are either less bright or do not glow at all!
There are only two answers to this oddity that are possible. It is either the forger is so lazy that he just grabs whatever paper is handy or....there are numerous different printings of the forgeries and this has been going on much longer than my discovery of the early 2014 massive movement of the forgeries onto the market.

The basic rule to follow with all stamps produced by the Format Printers is,
THE IMAGE SIDE OF GENUINE STAMPS DO NOT GLOW AT ALL.
The Format Printers used basically all the same type of paper on all the stamps they produced in the 1980's as did they use the same gum type except for a couple sets they produced in 1989 when newer types of gum were becoming popular in the stamp printing business.

For both the imperforate souvenir sheet and the normal perforated version of this issue that I have acquired the forgeries glow brightly as these images show. For the comparison of the stamps I use genuine specimen stamps for the comparison.

For the comparison of the souvenir sheet I use genuine imperforates sold by the same sellers and a specimen souvenir sheet for the comparison.

I am certain the imperforate stamps and the fake inverts glow the same.

The first clue that these stamps are forgeries is NO INVERTS OF THIS ISSUE WERE EVER PRINTED BY THE FORMAT PRINTERS.

No inverts of this stamp issue were ever on the market until 2015 and all inverts of this series have been proven to be forgeries.
At present only this Stampbank guy persists in offering them on his website and on Amazon. Avoid the seller in all dealings because he has proven himself to be a complete rip-off dealer in all ways. At present (October 2017) on eBay he has stopped selling anything for several months now. Wonder why?

Here are gum comparisons.

Gum Comparison of a Fake Stamp with Original
Unlike the gum on many of the forgeries that are flooding the market right now the gum is more yellowish in color on the single stamp set I received. 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 imperforate souvenir sheet forgeries I have found the 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 and Forged 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth Souvenir Sheets
Again there is an obvious difference in color and texture.


THE STAMP FORGERIES

Another way to easily detect the forgeries is the framing around the images on the three lower values. Here is an image.


See the gray framing on the genuine stamp? There is none on the forgeries. This grayish frame surrounds the images on all sides on genuine stamps and will not be found on forgeries. This frame is produced by the unique process in printing the stamps by the Format Printers. It being more expensive to produce, the forger has skipped the steps needed to produce it. Here is an image from another value.



Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake Stamp with Original Stamp
Note the differences in color on the fake stamp. The loss of detail caused by the inferior screen pattern.


Comparison of the Fonts on a Stamp Forgery with Fonts on a Genuine Stamp

Here you can see a major difference. The spacing is wider on the forgeries. The "i" and the "r" in "Virgin" touch at the base on genuine stamps. They are well spaced on the forgeries. Also the "r" and "g" almost touch on genuine stamps whereas again on the forgeries they are well spaced.

Now I will show you reduced images of the genuine specimen overprinted stamps with the forgeries. All scanned at the same time with the same settings.

Comparison of the 12c Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp

A stunning difference yes?
Please note the extreme difference in color of the background and the plaque on the fake stamp.
The stamp forgeries are kind of like a photocopy of the originals but use a lower quality screen and have a shiny surface over the face.

Noted differences:
The photo image has a very light brown tint on genuine stamps. The tint is light green on the forgeries.
The plaque is darker yellow-green on genuine stamps. It is bright green on forgeries.
The background color of the whole stamp is very pale blue on genuine stamps. It is a light blue on the forgeries.

Comparison of the 35c Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp

Noted differences:
The same differences as the 12c stamps
The queen's face has a reddish hue to it on genuine stamps. On forgeries her face is pale with no reddish hue.

Comparison of the $1.50 Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp

Noted differences:
The same differences as the 12c stamps
The queen's face has a reddish hue to it on genuine stamps. On forgeries her face a yellowish "tanned" look.
The queen's hat and dress are red on genuine stamps. Her dress and hat are orange on the forgeries.

Comparison of the $2 Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp

Noted differences:
Background color is shades of gray on genuine stamps. It is shades of green on the forgeries.
Country name and the denomination are dark red on genuine stamps. They are light red on the forgeries.
Country name and the denomination are opaque (you can see through them) on genuine stamps. They are solid on the forgeries.
The queen's face has a reddish hue to it on genuine stamps. On forgeries her face a yellowish "tanned" look.

The British Virgin Islands 60th Birthday Imperforate Souvenir Sheet Forgery



Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake Souvenir Sheet Image with Original Souvenir Sheet Image
Note the difference in color on the fake souvenir sheet. The inferior screen pattern again is prominent.


Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake Souvenir Sheet Plaque with Original Souvenir Sheet Plaque
Again there is pronounced differences on the logo plaques.


Here are the two imperforate souvenir sheets side by side. Now you can see the difference yes?


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.

The perforations on the panes are wrong

Here is an image of the British Virgin Islands 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth 12c stamp pane from the original printing.


Now here is an image of a corner pair from a fake stamp pane.


Now look at the image of the pane and the image of the fake stamp with selvage shown above. Can you see the difference?
The perforations run through the selvage on the original panes on all sides except the bottom. There are no perforations on the selvage of the fake panes!
Also the pane numbers of the panes are completely different on examples I have found!!

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 British Virgin Islands 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II Forgeries of the stamps and souvenir sheet 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!

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

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