THE MODERN FAKE SAINT VINCENT 1985 AUDUBON BIRDS STAMP ISSUES

Saint Vincent 1985 Leaders of the World Audubon Birds Stamp Forgery Set
Scott# 807-810 Stanley Gibbons# 854-861

Saint Vincent 1985 Leaders of the World Audubon Birds Imperforate Forgery Set

Saint Vincent 1985 Leaders of the World Audubon Birds Imperforate Invert Error Forgery Set

I have found documented proof dated April 2015 that at least 5,000 imperforate forgery sets of this issue have been moved onto the market!

UPDATE August 2017

I created this page over two years ago and the sale of these forgeries continues.
I just purchased a set of perforated forgeries and added the image above. Everything is the same as the imperforates I describe on this page except the perforated stamps have a yellowish gum. The gum is already starting to bend badly unlike genuine stamps which have only a very slight bending. The yellowish gum is smooth whereas genuine gum has a texture. These I purchased on eBay from a seller in Canada who had no idea that they are forgeries.

END OF UPDATE

UPDATE March 2018

As of March 2018 a new player has joined the ranks selling forgeries of this issue. On eBay stampsinternational2010 (aka city-collectables) has apparently acquired a large stock of the forgeries and is trying to move them on eBay. We have forced him to describe them as such but are still having problems with him placing them in the proper category. Namely the "Fakes and Reproductions" category. In my opinion all of them should be permanently marked as forgeries on the back. The fake inverts as color proof sets in full panes are also now on the market!

I have acquired a set of them (at $20.00) for reference and can now verify they are exactly the same as the "normal" forgery set imaged above. Here is an image of all the panes that I received together.


I note that the 40c value is not inverted. Another blunder on the forgers part.

After I purchased the pane set of these forgeries user stampsinternational2010 posted a new lot. This time a full set of fake color proofs of the inverts in full panes! Looks like I got ripped because at this time (March 24, 2018) he is offering it at $16.00! Guess I should have waited! Here is an image he presents on eBay.

Here is another image by the user of one of the fake black color proof panes.


Here is an image of a genuine black color proof of the same value as the imaged pane above.

You can see that the image of the birds and the fonts are all printed on the same plate. There is no way that it can be inverted except to create a completely new plate.

Here is an image of a genuine set of color proofs of a 1985 Audubon Birds set.


Here is an image of the forged 15c color proofs of the 1985 Audubon Birds stamp pairs in panes taken from the users lot images.


Now you can see just how different the forgeries are.
Note that there are only five proofs in the forgery set. Seven for the genuine set. Note that the blue/red and final colors without inscriptions are missing in the forgery set. This is because the forgery process has been "cheapened" down.
Should these forgeries even be offered at all by sellers? Not without them being permanently marked as forgeries so they cannot deceive unknowing dealers and collectors. This is not happening at this time so please be aware before buying any color proofs of any of the Leaders of the World stamp series including birds, butterflies, cars, trains, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and so forth.

END OF UPDATE March 2018

Now for my original writing I wrote in 2015 on this issue.

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 December of 2015.
The sets imaged above are all fakes!

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 imperforate sets of forgeries of the Saint Vincent Leaders of the World 1985 Audubon Birds issues. All are being offered online right now as I write this on December 11, 2015.

I can also tell you that I have discovered that many more "modern" issues for Saint Vincent 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 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.

I noticed sales of the Saint Vincent 1985 Audubon Birds issues as imperforates being sold on eBay from a armi777 and asrm10 based in Latvia. This dealer is a large volume dealer and was and is offering these fakes in bulk lots of 5, 10 pairs all still attached. The starting bid is 99c! Buyers constantly bid them up to $3.00 to $12.00 ranges. They all have been selling thus they are now everywhere in the world! Thousands have been moved!

I suspected that they are forgeries because other forgeries I have purchased from these same users. I recently purchased this issue and sure enough they are exactly the same as all the other forgeries I have written about. I got them for $5.00 winning bid. This shows us how easily these are being spread across the world.

This users are is playing dumb and have persisted in selling these and many other forgeries including user balticamber2011.

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.

I note that these images are taken with an iphone. Conditions make the brightness differ with each picture taken so the genuine set "looks" different as far as brightness. the images are to give you a basic idea of what to look for.

I have found that the imperforates which have the white gum all glow brightly. Here is the comparison.

Now here is where it starts getting very confusing.
For the normal perforated version of this issue that I have purchased two values of the forgeries glow brightly as this image shows. The top forgery even darker (no glow) than the genuine stamps! The bottom forgery has a medium glow! All have the yellowish gum.

Even though these appear to have three different printings the colors, fonts and everything in normal lighting is the same.

Not sure if the perforated values exist with the glow or vise versa different than what is imaged. Maybe you have that answer....

Here are gum comparisons.

Gum Comparison of a Fake Stamp with Original
Updating to the problem I have found the perforated versions of these forgeries have the yellowish gum. I believe the perforated forgeries this balticamber 2011 is selling in strips recently have the white gum like the imperforates. If that is the case then this shows a continuation of printings of these forgeries.
I am updating the gum comparison section as of September 2017 to include the yellowish gum versions.

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 no such stamps like these have ever been on the market nor recorded, it proves these to be modern forgeries of the stamps.


Unlike the gum on many of the forgeries that are flooding the market right now the gum on the perforated stamp forgery is more yellowish in color. It is opaque though in comparison with the original gum. This type of gum has appeared on quite a few other issues I have detected as forgeries like the St. Vincent Century of Motoring issue and now many 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.

Gum Comparison of the Genuine stamp with Imperforate and Perforated Forgeries of the full Saint Vincent 1985 Audubon Birds Stamp pairs
Again there is an obvious difference in color and texture.


Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake Stamp with Original Stamp
I will use the 60c value for comparisons using original Specimen overprinted which is proof of the original printing.

Note the differences in color on the fake stamp. The inferior screen pattern that has lost a major portion of the details.


Now the fonts.
The original has bolder fonts than the fakes.


Now the Border.
Note the black frame line is much thicker on the forgery. The pronounced difference in screens used. The color difference.


Now I will show reduced images of the original 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 Saint Vincent Audubon Birds Fake 15c Stamp Pair with the Original Stamp Pair
A stunning difference yes?
Please note the difference in color of the background and the plaque on the fake stamp. It is difficult to discern if not next to originals.
The fake stamps are kind of like a photocopy of the originals but use a lower quality screen and have a shiny surface over the face.
They can easily fool you!


Comparison of the Saint Vincent Audubon Birds Fake 40c Stamp Pair with the Original Stamp Pair


Comparison of the Saint Vincent Audubon Birds Fake 60c Stamp Pair with the Original Stamp Pair


Comparison of the Saint Vincent Audubon Birds Fake $2.25 Stamp Pair with the Original Stamp Pair


You can see that there is a lot of differences between the two printings. Still without 1200dpi scanning and checking the gum these will fool many.

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

This is a bit more complicated to explain because the perforated forgeries do have the perforation holes running through the selvage on three side much like the genuine stamp panes do. To explain this fully I took several images from seller lots of the genuine stamps with selvage. It is like putting together a puzzle to show the positions on the press sheet since none appear to exist now.

Here is an image of the Saint Vincent 1985 Audubon Birds 60c and $2.25 stamp pairs from the bottom part of a pane with the Format logo from the original printing as they are specimens. Note there are no perforation holes running through the selvage on either.


Here is another image with the same values only with the color guide portion. Note again no perforations. the perforations do run through on the other two values.
The two images show us that the side with the logos and color guides under the 60c and $2.25 value panes has no perforations running through.


Now here is a upper right corner block of the 60c value. Note the perforations are running through the right side.


Finally here is an image of the forgeries in the form of lower right blocks.


Now look at the images of the genuine stamps selvage. Then look at the selvage of the fake stamp blocks. Can you see the difference?
The perforations do not run through the selvage on the genuine panes of the 60c and $2.25 values on bottom. They do on the forgeries.
The perforations run through the selvage on the right side of the 60c value as shown. They do not on the forgery block.
Also notice the "extra" perforation holes on the edge of the selvage on the right on the 15c and 60c forgery blocks. This has been "typical" on many of the forgery panes of other effected stamp issues.

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 Saint Vincent 1985 Audubon Birds stamps 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!

Here are links to images of each stamp with an original next to a forgery. 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. 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

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