THE MODERN FAKE SAINT VINCENT GRENADINES 1986 60TH BIRTHDAY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II STAMP FORGERIES

Saint Vincent Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II Forgery Set
Scott# 514-517 Stanley Gibbons# 459-462

Saint Vincent Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II Fake Imperforate Souvenir Sheet
Scott# 518 Stanley Gibbons# MS463

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

I have discovered that modern forgeries of the stamps and souvenir sheets 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 re-write this page in January of 2017.

As of this update ALL IMPERFORATE SOUVENIR SHEETS OF THE SAINT VINCENT GRENADINES 60TH BIRTHDAY ISSUE ARE FORGERIES unless sold by me or Rushstamps! We own ALL the genuine imperforate souvenir sheets. Not even Stampdile has one because I obtained all of the existing originals in a massive buy out of the 60th Birthday imperforates and color proofs of all the souvenir sheets for this series from Jonathan Feigenbaum in 2010. The forgeries are easy to detect. Please read on.

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 and below, 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 perforated versions of the stamps and imperforate souvenir sheets of the Saint Vincent Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday issue that are forgeries. They have been offered online as I wrote this on July 20, 2015 and now as I update this page. I found the single stamp forgeries in 2016 and have had to update this page in January of 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 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. 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 wrote this page in 2015. I am have now updated it in 2017. The perforated stamp forgeries have come onto the market in 2016. The appearance of these new forgeries shows us that the producers and sellers connected to them are still placing this junk onto the market unhindered. You must now be wary of every stamp and souvenir sheet for this issue as I predicted in 2015.

I noticed sales of bulk lots of 5 of the Saint Vincent Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth imperforate souvenir sheet being sold on eBay from a dealer in Latvia at the 99c start bid. I noticed just from the image that something was wrong. The background color on the souvenir sheets stamps was a much darker blue. I purchased a lot and was amazed to find it is from a completely different printing than the originals! The colors, screens, fonts and gum completely differ.
I searched for anything else odd with the issue but in 2015 I did not find anything. There are other issues from other countries being forged by the same source including inverted frame errors and imperforates so I suspected that more forgeries of the Saint Vincent Grenadines issue will surface as well.

I am sorry to say, as of 2016 I have found the single stamp forgeries being sold by the same sellers on eBay.

I have now received a genuine specimen set for comparison images. I have used the Saint Vincent Grenadines fake imperforate souvenir sheet with a genuine imperforate souvenir sheet when this page was originally made. I mentioned above I basically acquired almost the complete original stock of the imperforate souvenir sheet and was the only seller of them aside from Rushstamps until these forgeries started appearing. Therefore unless they can prove it, all other sellers of the imperforate Saint Vincent Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday souvenir sheets are selling you forgeries!

I now have everything to show you what to look for.

Here are the differences.

Gum comparisons.

Gum Comparison of a Fake 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 did not appear on the market until 2014 and no such invert errors have ever been on the market nor recorded, it proves these to be modern forgeries of the stamps.


Gum Comparison of the Original and Fake 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth Souvenir Sheets
Again there is an obvious difference in color and texture.


I will use the 5c Specimen Overprinted Saint Vincent Grenadines 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II for high resolution comparisons.

Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake 5c Stamp with Original Specimen 5c Stamp
Note the extreme difference in color on the fake stamp. The inferior screen pattern. You can hardly make out her eye on the forgery!


Now let's compare the country name fonts.



Pretty close yes? On the genuine stamps the color is blacker. But do you see the real difference? Look at the spacing between the "d" and the "i".

And now, the easiest way to tell the difference. The color of the plaque.



Genuine stamps are light brown...forgeries are olive green. This forger really sucks in color matching! Oh that's right...the inks used to make the stamps originally no longer exist!

Full Comparison of the Saint Vincent Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday 5c Stamp Forgery with a Genuine 5c Stamp

A stunning difference when put side by side, yes?
Please note the extreme difference in color of the plaque on the forgery. All you need to know to detect them. If they are green they are fake!
Imperfs, normals or, if they appear those stupid inverts....green plaques.....fakes!

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.


Full Comparison of the Saint Vincent Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday $1 Stamp Forgery with a Genuine $1 Stamp

This one even easier to tell. Brown tint image...genuine...green tint image....fake! Reminds me of the Saint Vincent 1987 Royal Ruby Wedding fake inverts going around. Same problem....same producer. Read my page on that fiasco!


Full Comparison of the Saint Vincent Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday $4 Stamp Forgery with a Genuine $4 Stamp



Full Comparison of the Saint Vincent Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday $6 Stamp Forgery with a Genuine $6 Stamp

Really an all around bad forgery here folks. Light lavender...good....green.....bad.


The Imperforate Souvenir Sheet Forgery



Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake Souvenir Sheet Image with Original Souvenir Sheet Image
Note the difference in color on the fake souvenir sheet. The inferior screen pattern again is prominent.


Screen and Color Comparison of the Fake Souvenir Sheet Plaque with Original Souvenir Sheet Plaque
Again, there are pronounced differences on the logo plaques.


Here are the two souvenir sheets side by side. Now you can see the difference yes? Notice the forgery is slightly smaller in size.


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

One buyer of these forgeries 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

Here is an image of the Saint Vincent Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth 5c stamp pane from the original printing.


Now here is an image of a corner pair from a stamp pane forgery.


Now look at the image of the pane 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 the sides. There are no perforations on the selvage of the corner pair forgery!
Also the pane numbers of the panes are completely different on some examples I have found!!

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. These fake imperforate souvenir sheets. 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 Grenadines 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II stamps and souvenir sheets 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 is a link to an image of the genuine souvenir sheet next to a forgery. Scanned at 600dpi so the file is large. Both souvenir sheets were scanned at the same time with the same settings and nothing is enhanced. Please be patient with downloading the file because it is around 7 to 8 megs.

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

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