THE SPITFIRE ERROR STAMPS
AND OTHER VARIETIES PRINTED BY THE FORMAT INTERNATIONAL SECURITY PRINTERS LTD.

The 1986 50th Anniversary of the Spitfire (fighter aircraft) Stamps and What was Found in the Archive

Information on the new forgeries of this issue is found in the lower sections of this page. Please read about them and how to detect them so you will not get ripped off!

UPDATE 2018 WARNING!!!!

It has come to my attention that the Michel Catalog editors were fooled into adding notes in the latest edition of their catalogs that inverts exist of this issue and others. It started with the forger or one of his associates fooling Christian Calves into issuing False Expertising certificates on fake inverts. Here is one for this issue.

I contacted the expert directly and this is his reply.

In english it reads.

Dear Sir,
I am interested in the e-mail you sent us on May 25 about the stamps printed by Format International Security Printers.
I have browsed your site carefully and have been very favorably impressed by the breadth of your research that demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the subject.
They allowed me to read information that I did not have in my possession. Rest assured that I will take them into account, when I will have to appraise stamps printed by this company.
With thanks,
Best regards,
Christian Calves

With this you can see we now have a very huge problem with stamp expertising services. The forger and his cronies will go to great lengths to try to get their fake junk authenticated as if genuine to fool you into buying them.

THEY THEN TOOK IT FARTHER!

I was notified by other experts that the most recently published Michel Catalogs have new notes added that inverts exist of these issues! I immediately contacted the editors of Michel catalog. Here is the response.

If you cannot read the image, this is what it says.

Dear Mr. Lowe,
I am answering only today because your mail reached me after workend of the day before the German day of reunification, our national holiday.
Thank you very much for your information, which was not totally new to us, as we got another warning some months ago. At that time I deleted the footnotes concerning the inverts from our database. Yours sincerely
ppa Oskar Klan

So if there is any doubt remaining that the expertising certificates and/or the notes in Michel Catalog are false in all regards then contact them yourself to get the answer. Sadly these false certificates and newly published catalogs are now on the market causing havoc to dealers and collectors worldwide. Thanks to one person....

The forger who is a wholesale stamp dealer and his cronies are professional cons that will go to the most extreme lengths to get fake material like this to appear genuine. They are a network of dealers around the world and are very powerful entities in the philatelic community. You can see this just by what has happened here.

YOU MUST BE ALERT AND DO EXTENSIVE RESEARCH BEFORE BUYING ANYTHING LIKE THIS!!

END UPDATE 2018 WARNING

Please note that my pricing is based on the rarity factor in relation to many other errors and varieties found all over the world. Interest and demand are a large factor when selling them. Because most do not even know of the existence of these errors, the demand is low and thus the selling prices are much lower.

In 1986 the Format International Security Printers Ltd. were commissioned By the Nevis postal authorities to produce a series of stamps depicting pictures of the famous Spitfire fighter aircraft to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its creation. A set of four stamps and a souvenir sheet were produced for Nevis. They were:

NEVIS
1986 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE SPITFIRE Scott #460-4, SG #372-5, MS376






According to prior written information and internet research the following findings will be presented and will stand until solid evidence is presented proving otherwise........

THE SPITFIRE MISSING COLOR ERRORS




The following was written by the late Mr. Kasimir Bileski who acquired all existing sheets and panes of the Spitfire color error issues found in the archive.

Of the many Nevis stamps that Format printed to be handed over to
the British Crown Agents and sent on to Nevis in proper salable
form this is what happened in printing the Spitfire set of stamps.
The printers assembled the four stamps in the set using two of the
primary colors, namely, yellow and blue plus black. They printed a
number of sheets and even cut them down to proper units of 25
stamps per pane. The manager examined the result and decided that
the colors were to weak to represent the formidable Spitfire. The
red color was added and the result was satisfactory. The set was
completed in the issued form. Black of course was also added for
the usual lettering and figures. That I am sure is how the set
acquired a missing color.

The same thing happened to the miniature sheet. Only in this case
the red and blue were first tried with the usual black. Missing was
the yellow color this time. The manager deemed the result again too
weak using the two colors. Again he preferred the no nonsense old
grey result when the yellow color was added. During the printing of
the very first lot of four stamps, which produced four different
stamps with the red color missing only two intact uncut sheets were
destined for the archives but these got mangled up and damaged in
the printing machinery. Such were thrown away and only a few
examples remained to be put into the archive. These showed
examples of the margins and gutters.

_______Kasimir Bileski________

The error stamps themselves were save in cut panes of 25 except for the full uncut press sheets of which I will present and discuss more on a little later. According to Robson Lowe (who took inventory and was in charge of liquidation of the archive after the printing company went bankrupt), the following was written in the inventory list:

NEVIS 1986 $1, $2.50, $3, $4 (425 copies of each) all with
red omitted; $6 m/s with red omitted (300 copies) also uncut
sheets of 20 panes (4) with the same error

In my analysis of this you can see Mr. Lowe erred in stating RED omitted on the mini sheets as it really was the YELLOW that was omitted. The quantities listed pretty much comply with the write ups by Mr. Bileski. However, there is no mention of the uncut press sheets of the error stamps themselves in Robson Lowe's list.

As for the write up that Mr. Bileski wrote above there is conflict there too. The following is an excerpt from another write up by Mr. Bileski. The first segment is about his purchase in 1991. The second part is the July 14, 1995 final sale.

Robson Lowe wrote up several errors and of course described all the unissued vari-
eties in the "British Philatelist" magazine. One lot was left unidentified and it
puzzled me. There were four uncut sheets of the Spitfire set, #460-#463. All four
values were printed on one sheet. In addition there were some 100 little sheets
of #464, the miniature sheet, plus four uncut sheets of the miniatures, 20 panes to
each sheet. At the top of each sheet was the color guide. Looking at them I could
not figure out what was wrong with them. I did not have a set of stamps with which
to compare them. Scott does not list the colors nowadays, especially if several
are used in printing.

So when this July 14 final Format sale came around I made sure to buy all the Nevis
archive which had the uncut sheets. Found only two uncut sheets of the Spitfire
set #460-463, plus two uncut sheets of the miniature panes. Comparing these with
what I had on hand from the earlier purchase was a lesson, showing what a difference
the absence of one color produces. The yellow color was missing in my original
1991 purchase of uncut sheets of the 20 miniature panes, while the four uncut sheets
of #460-463 lacked the red color. A simple enough error, due to two sheets going
through the press at the same time resulting in the sheet underneath missing one
color

At least the complete set of four color guides on the issued uncut sheet of mini-
atures were there to show what had happened to the sheets that Robson Lowe had
sold me in 1991

________Kasimir Bileski_________

As one can see there are two completely different theories as to how the errors were created.

The following will be presented in two sections.
SECTION 1 will pertain to the stamp set.
SECTION 2 will pertain to the souvenir sheets. Here we go.

_______SECTION 1_______

Considering that Robson Lowe's quantity is correct for the singles of the set this would mean that there were 17 panes of 25 of each value saved in the archive.
This means that at most 17 sets of CORNER BLOCKS can exist for each value.
Here is an example of the one dollar corner block set.


I have one set of these panes intact which drops the total to 16 sets of corner blocks that can exist.
I believe these are the last and only intact panes of 25 left in existence.





Mr. Bileski valued the corner blocks at $750.00 a set. The FULL set of ALL FOUR CORNERS including ALL values were valued at $3,000.00. Mr. Bileski valued a set of the single errors at $400.00 on the basis that he had around 100 sets. These calculations do not match up as to the rarity factors. Basically the corner blocks should be valued at $4,000.00 for the all 4 corners with all values set and $1,000.00 for the single corner with all values set.
The singles error sets should be valued at $200.00 a set.
Taking into account that a set of corner blocks takes 16 out of the 25 from each pane thus 272 are deducted from the 425 leaving 153, of which pairs and selvage sets were saved the calculation of 100 sets is within range to be correct. Please take into account that assuming all the panes were broken in this way, NO blocks of 4 can be made. More on blocks of 4 later.

On to the uncut press sheets which are of the most extreme rarity factors.
Below I present an image using what I believe to be the only existing set of panes left in the world together with the main parts from the uncut press sheets to show the difference of the two.


As one can see the selvage on the lower, upper and left edges is much larger than on the panes. The right edge is the same size. The selvage is cut off when the press sheet is cut into panes.

Now....this is Mr. Bileski's statement on the uncut press sheets he had.

First of all, I had only two uncut sheets all stamps normal as issued. Of the error lot
I had four uncut sheets, plus one more damaged.

My question is.....because of this statement why are the numbers so low of the pieces from the uncut press sheets that exist??? It is possible that Mr. Bileski may have saved ONE of the sheets intact. The answer is unknown at this time.
Judging from the following pricing guide and what I have acquired from the estate logic tells me four of the sheets were broken. In earlier statements and the quantities shown to exist I am lead to believe that probably three of the sheets were heavily damaged mainly around the selvage edges.
The following is excerpts taken from his pricing from the same write up as the above statement was made along with images of the items if available.

1 normal set of 4 singles - not priced

1 error set of 4 singles - value...............$400.00

These should be priced at $200.00 a set.

1 centre unit cross gutter, 2 exist, nominal value............$100.00

UPDATE: Recently found the two existing cross gutters!!

1 centre unit cross gutter error set, 4 exist - value.........$700.00

I believe pricing is WAY off for these. Should be $2,000-$3,000.00
His pricing on normal cross gutters is also way off since only two exist. They should be valued in the same range.

1 horizontal gutters pair error (4 exist) - value.............$500.00

One of these is shown. Mr. Bileski originally broke these into double pairs. He added an 's' after gutter to emphasize that they are double pairs from both sides of the sheet. As one can see from the image of the rebuilt sheet only one double pair of these can be taken from each side as the cross gutters and the side gutter sets take up the rest thus making the above valued set. Some stamp dealers/sellers are breaking these into single gutter pairs and using the same pricing or making exaggerated statements as to value. It is possible that the write ups Mr. Bileski made were mixed in with the wrong items as auction dealers and sellers are breaking the estate into smaller and smaller fragments and getting things mixed up. It is also possible that Mr. Bileski "updated" a writeup which I do not have. If this is so....scan it and send it for verification and modification to this page can be made.
The value for single gutter pairs show to be at $250.00.

Again because of the rarity factor this value is too low. It should be around $1,500-2,000.00 a set.
Thus single pair sets should be valued at $750-1,000.00 a set.

1 vertical gutters pair error (4 exist) - value...............$500.00

Again, as stated on the above horizontal gutters pair errors, the same holds true with these as well, with the exception that single pairs were also made of which also only 4 sets can exist which should make their value around $250-300.00.

We must now refactor rarity thus these should be valued at $1,500-$2,000.00 for intact double gutters pairs sets. Again refer to the rebuilt sheet to see how this is possible.

Logical deduction shows however that more can exist of the single pairs. Five sets per sheet are possible making 25 sets possible BUT one must deduct the cross center blocks of which I found three, the upper and lower center pairs of which Mr. Bileski states 2 upper and 1 lower exist, and the vertical gutters pairs of which 4 existed. This would deduct 13 pairs leaving only 12 possible single pair sets. Out of that number how many can truly exist with the damage factor of the one sheet involved?

UPDATE: recently purchased 3 vertical pairs with creasing and wrinkling and they match each other proving they came from the same sheet. They are probably from the heavily damaged sheet.

One seller I have seen stating the single pair set was valued by Mr. Bileski at $6,000.00. Obviously a mixed up seller taking into account a description of one piece of the Spitfire material descriptions by Mr. Bileski and placing it with the wrong item. This is easily done as I have bought and seen numerous lots of Bileski materials with wrong descriptive write ups by Mr. Bileski placed with the wrong items. Until extensive research is done one should NOT make claims from a single piece of paper found in said lots. Obviously if 20 to 25 of a said item exists, Mr. Bileski's pricing would be in range of what I describe and NOT in the thousands. Only unique items are placed in that category as shown.

Getting back to the valuation if all the vertical gutters pairs are separated into single gutter pairs then a total of 20 sets of these are possible. Thus split the vertical gutters pairs value in half at $750-1,000.00 and then because of the number possible of the singles gutter pair sets in this way split THAT amount and you come up with a valuation of $375-500.00! A fair value for these extremely rare gutter pairs!



Now here are a few of the EXTREME RARITIES from the sheet.
The following is from the little write up for the corner pairs from the sheet that was in the envelope containing the set. I have both sets.

NEVIS
#460-463

4 corner pairs of the great rarity -
missing red color. The 2 sets of the
error. One has the imprint of the
printer: Format. Another pair shows
only a blank where the red color
should be. Only two sets exist.

..........................$8,000.00

Note the damage. This explains why only two sets exist as the other sheets probably were VERY extensively damaged in these areas. Remember the only way to tell these from cut pane corners is by the LARGE selvage. Anyone trying to sell Spitfire error corners stating they are from the above mentioned value are wrong and should be avoided. I have both sets.

NEW EDITION! Another $1 bottom right corner has been found!

The following is from the write up for the image below.

Dr. Purcell

From this source I am giving you the following:

Upper center pair with two showing the wide margin at the top with
two of the errors on each side of the narrow gutter.
Only two units exist like this. My price for it is $1,000.00.

I also include the similar narrow margin between stamps but this
time there is two of each of the remainder two errors and the bottom
margin shows the name of the company plus color guide, which
shows the black, the yellow and the blue form indicating the color.
Missing is the red. Only one unit as enclosed exists. I value it at
$2,000.00.

I might as well show you a normal strip of ten stamps, which shows
the complete color guide and again the name of the company.

________Kasimir________

I found only the bottom margin gutter shown and the strip of ten normal issued in the envelope. The top was missing.
Again I note that probably the other sheets were damaged extensively in these areas.

Mr. Bileski never priced these of which I found 3 sets in my estate holding.
They are the right and left guide line gutter pairs. Again the possibility that 4 sets exist is a logical one. Going by Mr. Bileski's pricing I would presume that the value for one of these sets should be in the range of $2,500-3,000.00 a set.

Mr. Bileski did not price any blocks of 4 either as I explained earlier none could be taken from the panes unless one were to take away the corner block factor. In my estate holding I found one envelope with some of the error stamps in blocks of 4. Several have heavy creasing. This lead me to believe that all the blocks of 4 of the error stamps that exist are in that envelope. If I am wrong....send proof. Looking again at the rebuilt press sheet you can see that in the way the sheet is broken only two of each value can possibly be broken into blocks of 4. This would then make it possible for a total of 10 sets in blocks of 4 to be made. Because of the damage factor to the sheets, I believe that this was not possible.
Here is the count:

6 Blocks of 4 of the $1 value in excellent condition
3 Blocks of 4 of the $2.50 value in excellent condition
4 Blocks of 4 of the $3 value in excellent condition
4 Blocks of 4 of the $4 value 2 in excellent condition and 2 heavily creased

Based on these facts the blocks of 4 are placed in the extreme rarity category.
Only 2 complete sets in excellent condition can be made from them. Value $2,000.00. Considering the fact that certain shady characters would take this as they could break the selvage off the pane corners to make more money the value must stand at the same value as the single corner blocks of all 4 values at $1,000.00. The individual block of 4 value will stand at $250.00 each.

We also have the singles with bottom or top selvage. Please refer to the full sheet image.
I note that now a group of them has been found. Left and right selvage singles cannot be discerned from left and right cut pane singles as the selvage is basically the same width. Bottom and top selvage singles CAN be determined as the selvage is much wider than from the cut panes. A maximum of 5 of any blank selvage singles are possible.
Here is the count:

3 Bottom Singles of the $1 value with BLANK selvage (only 5 can exist)
3 Bottom Singles of the $1 value with BULLSEYE COLOR GUIDE selvage
(only 4 can exist)
No $2.50 singles with large selvage found so far.
5 Top Singles of the $3 value with BLANK selvage (only 5 can exist)
2 Bottom Singles of the $4 value with BLANK selvage (only 5 can exist)
3 Bottom Singles of the $4 value with COMPANY LOGO selvage (only 4 can exist)

Basing on the rarity of these the value should be in range of $100-150.00 each.
_______End Section 1______

_________SECTION 2________

The missing yellow color miniature sheets for the Spitfire issue are much easier to define.
According to Mr. Bileski four uncut press sheets were found in the archive of the missing yellow color error for the Scott #464 Spitfire miniature sheet. This is correct according to my research and acquisition of the material. Two more uncut press sheets were found without the error. Again correct. Robson Lowe recorded that 300 of the cut miniature sheets with the error like the one imaged below were found in the archive. This number I believe was yet another "missprint" in the Portfolio sent to Mr. Bileski at the time of sales. Mr. Bileski stated in one document that Mr. Lowe had found "about" 120 of the error souvenir sheets in the archive. In my acquisitions of these I would say that the latter number is correct due to them being mostly in one large estate sale lot I acquired that were in a small box. Here is the rundown.

The machine cut Spitfire miniature sheets are valued at $100.00

This is an image of a rebuilt press sheet of the miniature sheet errors.



This is what Mr. Bileski wrote on them.

As usual I'm dividing the uncut miniature sheets into pairs. The doubles become
instant rarities. In this manner the issued doubles are twice as scarce as the
errors as all I could find in the last purchase was two uncut sheets compared to
four of the missing colors.

Here's what exists now. (The uncut sheets no longer exist).

The Miniatures
1. In pairs, yellow color missing, 20 each with color guide at the top

2. In pairs, yellow color missing, 20 no color guide

3. In pairs, as issued, 10 with color guide

4. In pairs, as issued, 10 no color guide

As to valuations for the doubles, here are my retail figures
based on my belief that as of now not a single uncut sheet
exists elsewhere as errors. Nor are there any uncut sheets
of the stamps as issued. All that can be assembled are
extreme rarities.

1. and 3. - $500.00
2. and 4. - $400.00

__________________________Kasimir Bileski_______________

Basically once again pricing is off for these extreme rarities. Pricing should be as follows.

1. $750.00
2. $500.00
3. $1,000.00
4. $750.00

This takes into account the rarity factor, error versus normal, and present day values for varieties.
That is about it on the Nevis 1986 Spitfire Missing Color Errors. If any new evidence and/or proof is found, modifications will be made accordingly.

THE REPRINTS AND MODERN FORGERIES OF THE SPITFIRE STAMPS

Even though there are no documents on the second printing the evidence once again is what is available on the market. Imperforates, Color Proofs, Presentation Proof Books and other varieties show us all the evidence needed that there was a second printing. What is not known is that modern forgeries of the stamps and souvenir sheet 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 missing country name errors of the $2.50 value and forgeries of missing country name and missing value errors of the $2.50 value. I have discovered that all four values of the set have been forged also as normals issues thus being very dangerous forgeries. I have also discovered the imperforate souvenir sheet has been forged! All are being offered online right now as I write this on July 4, 2015.

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 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. A list of these sellers is being compiled and at some point the source will 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 including an index page listing them with links.

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

The Reprint


Several reprint runs were done for the Nevis Spitfire issue because they sold well at the time. The reprinting done at Format cannot be discerned from the originals because the same presses were used along with everything else remaining the same. Some varieties ie; imperfs, color proofs and specimen overprinted stamps, were created during these printings. According to one specialist there were three print runs.

I have found there was a fourth unauthorized printing. So far I have found only the perforated $2.50 value indeed as this different reprint. I am sure all the other values exist as such also. Due to the coarser screens being used I theorize the reprints were made at the time the Saint Vincent Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley unauthorized reprints were made which have the same coarser screen patterns. They were produced by Clive Feigenbaum long after the Format Printers were liquidated. Instead of PVA gum it has PVAD gum. The D is for dextrin which has a greenish tint. The screens used on this reprint use a coarser screen making the image less clear. Here are image comparisons.

Gum Comparison of a Reprint with Original
Obvious difference in color and texture.


Screen Comparison of the Reprint with Original
Note the much coarser screens used on the reprint.


Font Comparison of the Reprint with Original
The reprint has a heavier bolder font.

The Newest Forgeries of the Nevis Spitfire Stamps

UPDATE MAY 2018

Well, as I thought inverts are on the market! The Spitfire inverts threw me though! 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 on this page, there are no perforation holes running through the selvage on the forgeries like on genuine panes of these stamps.

ANY INVERT OF ANY SPITFIRE STAMP OF THIS ISSUE IS A FORGERY! PERIOD!

END MAY 2018 UPDATE

Recently I noticed sales of the Nevis Spitfire error of missing country name on the $2.50 value. I purchased one and was amazed to find it is from a completely different printing than the original and unauthorized reprint shown above! 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 there was never an offering nor reference to this "error" even existing until then, it proves these to be modern forgeries of the stamps.


Gum Comparison of the Original, Reprint and Fake Nevis Spitfire Stamps
Again there is an obvious difference in color and texture.


Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake Stamp with Original Stamp
Note the extreme difference in color on the fake stamp.


Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake Stamp with the Reprint Stamp
Again please note the extreme difference in color on the fake stamp.
The fake stamps are kind of like a photocopy of the reprints and have a shiny surface over the face.


Font Comparison of Fake Stamp
The forgery has a much heavier bolder font even bolder than the font on the reprint.


Font Comparison of the Original, Reprint and Fake Nevis Spitfire Stamps
The comparisons are astoundingly different yes?


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

Comparison of the Nevis Spitfire $1 Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp
You can see that this is an excellent forgery that can surely fool the untrained eye.


Notes on differences:
Much darker and heavier fonts on all letters on the borders of the forgery.
Spacing between the "$" and the "1" is wider on the forgery. Genuine like this "$1" and forgery like this "$ 1" but not as extreme as this.
The shadow line on the left wing is much darker on genuine stamps.
Under high magnification the planes numbers on the tail and rear side are readable on genuine stamps. On the forgery....they are a blur! You cannot even read the "K"!

Comparison of the Nevis Spitfire $2.50 Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


Notes on differences:
Firstly noting that the forgery used in the images is the fake missing country and denomination error.
Much darker and heavier fonts on all letters on the borders of the forgery.
The upper sky is blue on genuine stamps. It is green-blue on the forgeries.
The colors of the wings and tail on the largest Spitfire are much darker on the forgeries than on genuine stamps.

Comparison of the Nevis Spitfire $3 Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


Notes on differences:
Much darker and heavier fonts on all letters on the borders of the forgery.
Spacing between the "$" and the "3" is wider on the forgery. Genuine like this "$3" and forgery like this "$ 3" but not as extreme as this.
The upper sky is blue on genuine stamps. It is green-blue on the forgeries.
The dark green colors of the wings and tail on the largest Spitfire are much darker on the forgeries than on genuine stamps.

Under high magnification the planes numbers on the rear side are readable on genuine stamps. On the forgery....they are a blur!

Comparison of the Nevis Spitfire $4 Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


Notes on differences:
Much darker and heavier fonts on all letters on the borders of the forgery.
The dark green colors of the wings and tail on the Spitfire are much darker on the forgeries than on genuine stamps.
Under high magnification the planes numbers on the rear side on the black and white stripes are readable on genuine stamps. On the forgery....they are a blur!

You can see that there is a lot of differences between the printings but still...these are very deceptive forgeries.

Here is an image I made with my iphone to show you how to detect the reflective differences on the forgeries.


Not the best image but shows how much shinier the forgeries are compared to genuine stamps. The forgeries have a photographic finish making them have a high gloss finish on the face.
The majority of forgeries I have documented have this same finish.
Here is another image of the gum side.


This image shows you the completely different texture that genuine Format produced stamps have on the gum. Apparently it cannot be reproduced by the forger. Shocking yes?
Yet when these shady dealers are told to look...they ignore and continue to sell them to you, happily ripping you off!

ULTRA-VIOLET LIGHT DETECTION

I have discovered another way to detect the newest Spitfire 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 the normal perforated version of this issue that I have acquired which included the $2.50 error stamp, the forgeries glow brightly as this image shows. I use a genuine set from my Bileski estate acquisitions for the comparison.
Do imperforate forgeries of the single stamp issues for the Nevis spitfire issue? I have not seen any appear....yet. Perhaps you have the answer to that question.....

THE FAKE $2.50 VALUE 1986 NEVIS SPITFIRE MISSING COUNTRY NAME ERROR STAMP

So far I have seen only the $2.50 value with the error. The quantities produced with this error is unknown but because of the next error that I am displaying evidence points toward 5,000 copies were made. I showed above that this error is only on the fake stamps and thus a forgery.
The Format Printers never produced any errors of missing country name nor denomination on any value of the Nevis Spitfires issue. All of these errors are forgeries.


THE FAKE $2.50 VALUE 1986 NEVIS SPITFIRE MISSING COUNTRY NAME AND VALUE ERROR STAMP

This is a forgery of the $2.50 value with the country name and the value completely missing. The buyer of this "error" 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 the 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 original printing stamp corner.


Now look at the image of the panes 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. There are no perforations on the selvage of the fake panes!

Another note on the fake perforations. I found that some the $4.00 value forgeries also have double perforation errors. Again I emphasize they are fakes.

You can now define the fake Nevis Spitfire stamps easily and can now possibly avoid being ripped off!

Here are links to images of each stamp with an original next to a fake. 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 3.5 megs.

THE IMPERFORATE STAMPS AND SOUVENIR SHEET



Imperforate varieties of this issue seem quite common on the market and price wise are pretty reasonable. Valued at $3-6.00 a pair. Standard practices of the printer would produce 5,000 sets of them.
The imperforate souvenir sheets are valued at $7-10.00. Standard printing practices would produce 3-5,000 of them.

The Imperforate Forgery of the 1986 Nevis Spitfire Souvenir Sheet

I have found documented proof dated April 2015 that at least 10,000 imperforate forgery souvenir sheets of the Nevis Spitfire have been moved onto the market!
They were sold in Gaertner's 30th auction in lot number 21438A.

But now we have another problem! Fake imperforate souvenir sheets of the Nevis Spitfire issue are also being seeded into the market. I purchased a lot of 10 of them on eBay from user armi777 based in Latvia and sadly they are forgeries produced by the same source. They are easy to define because all the differences defined above for the single stamps are the same for the fake souvenir sheets. There is one more difference. Here is an image.


See that the fake souvenir sheet is cut shorter in height than the original one. Originals are around 85mm tall and the fakes are around 83mm tall.
Same screens, paper and gum and when compared the fakes have a glossy surface on the face almost like a photo where the originals are dull surfaced.
You can see the obvious difference in the colors.

ULTRA-VIOLET LIGHT DETECTION

For the imperforate Nevis Spitfire souvenir sheet forgeries that I have acquired, the forgeries glow brightly as this image shows. I use a genuine perforated souvenir sheet from my Bileski estate acquisitions for the comparison.
Do perforated forgeries of the souvenir sheet for the Nevis spitfire issue exist? I have not seen any appear....yet. Perhaps you have the answer to that question.....

They are being sold to sellers who in turn are selling them at asking prices of $5.00 or more for one.

Again before purchasing ask for 1200dpi images to compare and don't get ripped off!

THE SPECIMEN OVERPRINTS


Specimen overprinted stamp sets seem quite common on the market and price wise are pretty reasonable also. Valued at $3-6.00 a set.
Standard printing practices would produce 2-3,000 sets.

THE PROMOTIONAL IMPERFORATE PROOF CARDS


These are a rarity as only around 150-250 of each value were produced for promotional reasons.
The base value for each card is around $30-40.00.

THE IMPERFORATE PAIR FIRST DAY COVER SET


Another rarity. Not perforated but IMPERFORATE pairs on First Day Covers. Very few exist.
Valued at around $15-20.00 each.

FORGERIES
For some reason the $1 value with the missing red color error was forged. It originated in Maryland, Florida around 2002. Sometimes called the "Marvelous Marylands", many forgeries were made for many famous stamps from different countries. This is quite obviously a fake. The size of the plane, colors and fonts are all different. They are also marked "forgery" on the back.

These are no where as good a forgery as the newest ones that are on the market.

The Maryland Forgery of the $1 Nevis Spitfire Stamp


Basically the last word on the Nevis Spitfire Scott #460-464 color errors and varieties. Any new information on this set will be taken into consideration and modifications made if needed.

References taken from:
Stanley Gibbons Leeward Islands
Scott Catalog
Inventory list for the Format Archive by Robson Lowe
Kasimir Bileski notes
----View the notes here----
Mr. Roger West, owner of Avion Stamps and associate with Stampdile.
Online internet research
Personal purchases

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