THE MODERN FAKE MONTSERRAT 1985 QUEEN ELIZABETH 85TH BIRTHDAY STAMP ISSUES

Montserrat 1985 Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday Forgery Set
Scott# 558-562 Stanley Gibbons# 636-643, MS644


Montserrat 1985 Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday Imperforate Forgery Set

I already created a page showing all the souvenir sheets from this series that have been forged. During that time I did not find forgeries of the single stamp issues for Montserrat. I have now.

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 August of 2017.
The set and souvenir sheet imaged above are completely fake!

The imaged imperforate set is and has been offered by balticamber2011 and other Latvia based sellers on eBay for the past couple years. The image was taken from an eBay lot.

UPDATE OCTOBER 2017

I just purchased a lot of imperforate stamps like the imaged lot above. I purchased them from balticamber2011 at the winning bid of $3.85. balticamber2011 is raimissss. Also associated with armi777, asrm10 and hobbytrade. The users names are Raimonds Miskinis and Antanas Miskinis. Business names are Argi-stamps and/or SIA stamps all based in Latvia. The imperforate strips I received have the white gum as described in many other forgery pages. This shows the continued reproduction of the forgeries. Yellowish gum being older productions. Genuine imperforate stamps of this issue were and are a rarity.
Under ultra-violet light the strips glow just like the imaged stamps. All details described below are the same for the imperforate forgeries except the gum.

IF INVERTS OF THIS ISSUE APPEAR THEY ARE FORGERIES!
Inverts have appeared for several sets of this series. None are real as none were ever produced by the Format Printers.

END OCTOBER 2017 UPDATE

UPDATE MAY 2018

Well, as I thought 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, there are no perforation holes running through the selvage on the forgeries like on genuine panes of these stamps.

END MAY 2018 UPDATE

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 perforated and imperforate forgeries of the Montserrat Queen Elizabeth Leaders of the World 1985 85th Birthday issues. All are/have been offered online right now as I write this on August 27, 2017.

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

I purchased the above imaged set of forged stamp pairs from a dealer in Canada who did not even realize that they were forgeries. I purchased them recently along with many other sets which have all proven to be the same type of forgeries I have documented over the passed two years.
The souvenir sheet forgery I received in a bulk lot of 5 from Latvia based sellers on eBay in January 2016.

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 85th Birthday Stamp Pair 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 these. 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.



Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake Stamp with Original Stamp
I will use the 35c values for comparisons using an original from a set I purchased many years ago before any of this happened.

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

Left Stamp


Right Stamp


Now let's look at the fonts.


Here is one way to tell the forgeries from the genuine stamps. The "T" touches the "S" on genuine stamps. Not so on the forgeries. All values have this difference.

Now I will show reduced images of the original stamps with the forgeries.

Comparison of the 55c Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday Stamp Forgery Pair with a Genuine Stamp Pair


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!

Noticeable Differences:
Upper background is shades of green on the forgery. Upper background is shades of yellow-green on genuine stamps.
The queen's hat on the right stamp is shades of blue on the genuine stamps. It is shades of purple turning light green at the top on the forgeries. The same for her dress.
The leaves and the flowers are bright and detailed on genuine stamps. They are dull with little detail on the forgeries.
The country name and value background is very light red-pink on genuine stamps versus very light lavender on the forgeries.

Comparison of the 90c Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday Stamp Forgery Pair with a Genuine Stamp Pair


Noticeable Differences:
This is stunningly obvious....
Upper background is shades of gray on the forgery. Upper background is shades of lavender on genuine stamps.
The queen's hat on the left stamp is turquoise-blue and the hat on the right stamp is shades of dark blue on the genuine stamps. The queen's hat on the left stamp is shades of green and the hat on the right stamp shades of dull purple and green on the forgeries. The same effects on her dresses.
The leaves and the flowers are bright and detailed on genuine stamps. They are dull with little detail on the forgeries.
The country name and value background is light gray-blue on genuine stamps versus very light sky blue on the forgeries.

Comparison of the $1.15 Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday Stamp Forgery Pair with a Genuine Stamp Pair


Noticeable Differences:
Upper background is shades of red on the forgery. Upper background is shades of yellow and red at the lower part changing to very light red at the top on genuine stamps.
The queen's hat on the left stamp is shades purple turning blue at the top on the genuine stamps. It is shades of purple turning light green at the top on the forgeries. The same for her dress.
The leaves and the flowers are bright and detailed on genuine stamps. They are dull with little detail on the forgeries.
The country name and value background is light yellow-green on genuine stamps versus a darker green on the forgeries.

Comparison of the $1.50 Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday Stamp Forgery Pair with a Genuine Stamp Pair


Noticeable Differences:
Upper background is shades of very light brown on the forgery. Upper background is shades of lavender on genuine stamps.
The queen's hat on the left stamp is turquoise-blue and the hat on the right stamp is shades of dark blue on the genuine stamps. The queen's hat on the left stamp is shades of green and the hat on the right stamp shades of purple on the forgeries. The same effects are basically on her dresses too.
The leaves and the flowers are bright and detailed on genuine stamps. They are dull with little detail on the forgeries.
The country name and value background is light orange-yellow on genuine stamps versus a heavy dull yellow on the forgeries.

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

THE SOUVENIR SHEET

I noted at the start of this page that I had already created a general page showing numerous forged souvenir sheets from this issue.

DO NOT BUY IMPERFORATE 85TH BIRTHDAY SOUVENIR SHEETS!

The first and basically the only reason the imperforate souvenir sheets of the 85th Birthday issues as imaged are fakes is because until now they did not EXIST!!!. They never were on the market until these last few years. Only archival examples from some countries have ever been offered on the market. Those being from press sheets or in presentation folders by the printer. All of a sudden 30 years later these appear! So you don't smell a rat?

Comparison of the Fake Montserrat 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth Imperforate Souvenir Sheet with an Original Souvenir Sheet


Imperforates of the Montserrat souvenir sheet did not exist until now. Archival pieces were found but they are perforated and come from the press sheet with large selvage (imperforate) around them.
Obvious difference:
Look at the background color of the images of the queen. On originals the shading of the Black and white photo has a yellowish tint. On fake souvenir sheets it is just black and white. The grass on the lawn is much lighter green on the originals than on the fakes. The overall color is much darker on the forgeries. The castle is dark reddish-brown on the forged souvenir sheet versus much lighter brown on the genuine souvenir sheets.

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 is discovering them because of my research on the printer.
Indeed several issues that I have researched and obtained the original varieties of are effected. This set does not effect me at all. I only own what is imaged and have a few of the archival pieces from the Bileski estate. 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 Montserrat 1985 Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday 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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