THE MODERN FAKE SAINT LUCIA 1985 QUEEN ELIZABETH 85TH BIRTHDAY STAMP ISSUES

Saint Lucia 1985 Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday Forgery Set
Scott# 782-786 Stanley Gibbons# 832-839, MS840


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 St. Lucia. 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!

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 Saint Lucia Queen Elizabeth Leaders of the World 1985 85th Birthday issues. All are/have been offered online right now as I write this on August 25, 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 40c values for comparisons using an original from a set of panes I purchased many years ago before any of this happened. They are specimen overprinted 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.

Left Stamp


Right Stamp


Now let's look at the fonts.


You can see that the fonts on the genuine stamp are much bolder. On all the genuine stamps the "A" in "SAINT" connects with the "I". It does not on any of the forgeries.

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

Comparison of the 40c 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 light blue on the forgery. Upper background is shades of light green on genuine stamps.
The queen's face is much more toned on genuine stamps having a reddish shading like a sun tan. On the forgeries her skin tone is pale with no toning.
The flowers are bright red on genuine stamps. They are dull brick red on the forgeries.

Comparison of the 75c Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday Stamp Forgery Pair with a Genuine Stamp Pair


Noticeable Differences:
Upper background is shades of light lavender on the forgery. Upper background is shades of light pink on genuine stamps.
The country name background is almost gray on genuine stamps. It is deep lavender on the forgeries.
The queens hair is red-brown on the genuine left stamp versus brown on the forgeries left stamp.
The queen's hat on the right stamp is shades of light blue on genuine stamps. It is shades of pale and light green on the forgeries.
The queen's face is much more toned on genuine stamps having a reddish shading like a sun tan. On the forgeries her skin tone is pale with no toning.
The flowers are bright red on genuine stamps. They are dull brick red on the forgeries.

Comparison of the $1.10 Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday Stamp Forgery Pair with a Genuine Stamp Pair


Noticeable Differences:
Upper background is shades of dark gray on the forgery. Upper background is shades of light gray on genuine stamps.
The country name background is pale light green on genuine stamps. It is light blue on the forgeries.
The queens hat is dark purple on the genuine left stamp versus dull mauve on the forgeries left stamp.
The queen's hat on the right stamp has heavy shades of pink on genuine stamps. It has light shades of pink and looks much more white on the forgeries.
The queen's face is much more toned on genuine stamps having a reddish shading like a sun tan. On the forgeries her skin tone is pale with no toning.
The flowers are bright red on genuine stamps. They are dull brick red on the forgeries.

Comparison of the $1.75 Queen Elizabeth 85th Birthday Stamp Forgery Pair with a Genuine Stamp Pair


Noticeable Differences:
Upper background is shades of light green to dark gray on the forgery. Upper background is shades of light green to light gray on genuine stamps.
The country name background is pale salmon pink on genuine stamps. It is dull pink on the forgeries.
On the $1.75 pair the queen's face is much more toned on the forgery stamps having a golden shading like a sun tan. On the genuine stamps her skin tone is pale with very little toning.
The flowers are bright red on genuine stamps. They are dull brick red 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 Saint Lucia 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth Imperforate Souvenir Sheet with an Original Souvenir Sheet


Imperforates of the Saint Lucia 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 reddish 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.

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 Saint Lucia 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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