THE MODERN FAKE SAINT VINCENT UNION ISLAND 1986 4TH SERIES LOCOMOTIVE STAMP ISSUES

Saint Vincent Union Island 1986 Leaders of the World Locomotives 4th Series Perforated Forgery Set
Scott# 17,25,28,36,40,49,57,59

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.
All the stamps imaged above are 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 sets of perforated forgeries of the Union Island Leaders of the World 1986 Locomotives 4th Series issues. All are being offered online right now as I write this on December 11, 2015.

I have found documented proof that 10,000 perforated sets of forgeries of this issue have been moved onto the market!

I have also made several other discoveries on this issue!

In the sets I received of these is another variety of gum type. It is yellowish in color and so dangerously close to the originals gum type that without close scrutiny it is very hard to detect! I will go into more details below.
I have also discovered that this issue was forged using the same screen sizes as the originals! This makes them exceptionally dangerous forgeries.
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 some of the Saint Vincent Union Island Leaders of the World Trains issues being sold on eBay from a dealer based in Latvia. This dealer is a large volume dealer and was and is offering them in bulk lots of 5, 10 pairs all still attached and even offering part pane sets. Also in lots with other issues. The starting bid is 99c! Buyers constantly bid them up to $3.00 to $10.00 ranges. They all are 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 this same dealer. I recently purchased a lot containing this set and 8 other sets of the Leaders of the World Train sets from various countries as normal issues for some and imperforates for some. In looking at all the sets I have found that they are all forgeries. At first I thought that some were authentic because I was looking only for stamps with white gum. Then I noticed that several had an "error" of which I have no documentation on in my specialized pages on the issues. I then dug deeper scanning them at 1200dpi to get a look at the screens used and that is when I discovered that even the ones with yellowish gum are fakes! They are indeed the same as all the other forgeries I have written about. I got them for $6.00 winning bid against three other bidders. This shows us how easily these are being spread across the world. Here is an image of what I got.


These would have been a good deal if they were not all fakes.
Because I bought the stamps for this issue in the imaged lot above I decided to look for one of the pane set lots. Here is an image of one.
I found this lot where the same seller is imaging only the four high values. Possibly selling the other four values in another lot at some point.

I suspect them to have been printed at an earlier time and "held" until now.

This dealer is playing dumb and is persisting in selling these and many other forgeries so without naming names because of defamation retaliation and because eBay could retaliate I will have to leave it up to you collectors and dealers to do something about it.
so far I have alerted the APS, American Philatelic Magazine editors, Scott catalog editors about these forgeries. At this point they are tending to ignore it. Are you going to ignore it also?

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 Fake Stamps with Original
The white 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.

The yellowish gum I suspect to be older. It appears with this latest discovery that the forgers were working on this some time ago. The gum I am finding is bending very badly on this issue unlike original issues which only have slight bending. It is different than original gum. A flat appearance compared to original gum. Still this makes some of the forgeries exceptionally dangerous because collectors and dealers who are scanning their collections and stock looking only at the gum looking for white versus yellow appearance will have these slip right by. As stated they do appear slightly different next to the originals but if you do not have originals right there to compare, you will have to resort to magnified detection of the face of the stamp to detect the forgeries.

Here is resized image of the perforated and imperforate fake gum with an original.


Screen, Font and Color Comparison of a Fake Stamp with an Original Stamp
For the following comparisons I will use an original set I purchased direct from beddaustamps who purchased the residuals from the postal services many years ago thus assuring they are authentic.
Let us use the $1.50 Class 4 stamp for high resolution comparisons. I use 1200dpi scans for viewing.
This first comparison shows you just how different the screens are. I compare the front of the engine.


You can see that the screens on the forgery are very coarse. You can't even read the numbers 76024 on the forgery! The forgeries for this issue are very dangerous because when imaged for sale by sellers they look almost the same as the originals. Buyers will think it is just the sellers scanner making them look "different".

Now let's look at the fonts.


You can see that the fonts are completely different on this stamp. The "4" is a key to detecting the forgery.
Many other differences are obvious.

Now let's look at the side of the Coal Car on the detail drawing.


Again you can see that much of the detail is lost on the forgery. This one shows you the color difference though. The original is gray where the forgery is brown.

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

Comparison of the Fake 15c 1954 Germany Class 65.10 Locomotive Stamp with the Original Stamp


Now that you know what to look for it helps yes?
The key point on this stamp is the colors. The original color bars and locomotive in the detail drawing are gray blue whereas they are gray brown on the fakes. You can see the difference in overall color now yes?
Still you can see that most people will not even notice it which is what the forger wants!

Comparison of the Fake 30c 1976 UK Class 56 Locomotive Stamp with the Original Stamp


Here the engine on the detail drawing is blue on the originals and gray on the forgeries. The border bars are close though making a dangerous deception.

Comparison of the Fake 45c 1888 UK Sir Theodore Locomotive Stamp with the Original Stamp


On the 45c value the border bars are purple on the originals and gray brown on the fakes.

Comparison of the Fake 60c 1889 UK Elidir Locomotive Stamp with the Original Stamp


The 60c value is quite deceptive. Still you can tell as the engine on the detail drawing of the originals is bluish gray versus the forgery which is brownish gray. the color bars are brick red on originals versus brown red on the fakes. A very dangerous forgery indeed.

Comparison of the Fake 75c 1879 UK Sir Haydn Locomotive Stamp with the Original Stamp


The 75c Sir Haydn value is probably the most dangerous forgery of all. The colors are extremely close! Still you can see a difference when compared side by side. Again the engine is gray blue on originals and gray brown on the fakes but the contrast is more subtle than the others.

Comparison of the Fake $1.50 1952 UK Class 4 Locomotive Stamp with the Original Stamp


As I showed on the closeup views above for the $1.50 Class 4 stamp the most obvious thing to look for is the color difference of the engines. Gray blue on the originals and gray brown on the forgeries.

Comparison of the Fake $2.50 1899 UK Highflyer Class Locomotive Stamp with the Original Stamp


The $2.50 Highflyer Class stamps have several color differences. The color bars on the originals are a deep mustard yellow versus green yellow on the fakes. Again the engines on the originals are gray blue versus the forgeries being gray brown.

Comparison of the Fake $3 1880 Japan Class 7100 Locomotive Stamp with the Original Stamp


Huge difference in the color bar colors and engine colors. Note the "2-6-0". On the originals it looks like "2-6-0". On fakes it is "2- 6 -0"!

You can see that there is a lot of differences between the two printings. 1200 dpi imaging is absolute proofing for these.

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. That type of plastic is not produced any more. 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 Union Island 1986 4th series $1.50 stamp pane from the original printing.


Now here is an image of the fake stamp part panes.


Now look at the image of the original $1.50 full pane and the image of the fake part panes shown above. Can you see a difference?
The perforations do not run through the selvage on the original pane on the left side. There are perforations on the left selvage of the fake $1.50 part pane!
That is just one way how I knew they are fakes without even buying them!

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 Union Island 1986 4th series Locomotives 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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