THE BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS 1986 ROYAL WEDDING STAMP FORGERIES

British Virgin Islands 1986 Royal Wedding Forgery Set
Scott# 537-540 Stanley Gibbons# 605-608


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 2016.
The set imaged above is completely fake!

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 British Virgin Islands 1986 Royal Wedding as perforated and imperforate issues. All are being offered online right now as I write this on November 8, 2016.

I can also tell you that I have discovered that many more "modern" issues for Saint Lucia and other countries are being forged. Mainly varieties such as these 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.

The main movers of this junk now since 2014 and still to this day in 2017 are eBay sellers: armi777 based in Latvia.
asrm10 based in Latvia.
balticamber2011 based in Latvia.
kamalmedicine based in India.
kamalthematic based in India.
alphaomegaphilately based in India.
stampbank_of_london based in the United Kingdom.

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!

I noticed sales of the British Virgin Islands 1986 Royal Wedding issue as perforated and imperforates being sold on eBay from user asrm10 based in Latvia. This seller is a large volume dealer and was and is offering these fakes in bulk lots of 3, 4 pairs in blocks and strips. The starting bid is 99c!

I suspected that they are forgeries because other forgeries I have purchased from this same seller. I recently purchased a number of lots of these blocks and strips and sure enough they are exactly the same as all the other forgeries I have written about. I got them dirt cheap because they are just starting to sell them in bulk. This shows us how easily these are being spread across the world.

The sellers are playing dumb and are persisting in selling these and many other forgeries. Connected hand and foot with users armi777 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.

A small bit of history here.
In my research on what was printed by the Format International Security Printers the 1986 Royal Wedding issues were a big part. I acquired large portions of the originals from every country involved and have studied the issues intensely. you can read about all of them on my specialized pages. For British Virgin Islands I acquired a majority of the press sheets that still exist for the issue. These new forgeries are nothing like the originals at all!

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 and the normal perforated version of this issue that I have acquired the forgeries glow brightly as this image shows. I use genuine tete-beche pairs for the comparison.

Here are gum comparisons.

Gum Comparison of a Fake Royal Wedding Stamp 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 forgeries did not appear on the market until 2015-6, it proves these to be modern forgeries of the stamps.


Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake Stamp with Original Stamp
I will use the 35c value of Miss Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew for comparisons using an original from the Bileski Estate which is proof of the original printing.

Note the extreme difference in color on the fake stamp. The inferior screen pattern that lacks much of the details.


Now let's look at the fonts.


You can see that the forger has a problem with matching colors. Completely different! Note the sparse misplaced spray of blue "dots" on the forgery. Genuine issues have solid color fonts.

Now let's look at the border colors and lines.


You can see that the borders on the forgery are a different color. The screens used are completely different!

Now I will show reduced images of the original stamp pairs with the forgeries. At the bottom table are links to the same images at a fuller size. To big to fit the page of course as I scanned them all at 600dpi.

Comparison of the Fake 35c Royal Wedding Stamps with the Original Stamps


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

Comparison of the Fake $1 Royal Wedding Stamps with the Original Stamps


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

One other reason I made the purchases of these forgeries for was because they are being sold in part strips like I image below.



At no time were any of the 1986 Royal Wedding issues printed nor cut in such a fashion.

Here is an image of one of the uncut press sheets. All the 1986 Royal Wedding issues printed by the Format Printers were printed in this fashion.

Now...you tell me.....how do you get strips of three like the forgeries from the imaged press sheet? Obviously you cannot. Only if one of the pairs in the strip were tete-beche would it even be remotely close at all!
Note the perforations on the press sheet. They run through the selvage on three sides! Therefore, how is it possible for the forgeries to not have perforations running through three sides of the strip?? Again it is obvious, because they are forgeries! Run off on some cheap printer that is barely big enough to print out a pane of stamps, let alone a press sheet!

Here is an image of fake imperforates.


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 1986 Royal Wedding stamps easily (imperforate 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 pair with an original next to a forgery. All are scanned at 600dpi 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 7 to 8 megs.

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

Visit or return to the Modern Fake Stamps Introduction Page with Links to other Forgeries Here!!

All Content Copyright © 2016 Golowe's Collector Stamps, All Rights Reserved

Click here to return to last page viewed

Return to Format International Security Printers Reference Home page Here.