THE SAINT VINCENT UNION ISLAND 1984 CRICKET PLAYERS STAMP FORGERIES

Saint Vincent Union Island 1984 Leaders of the World Cricket Players Stamp Forgery Set
Scott# 126-133

After I was recently notified that forgeries of the Nevis Cricket Players series of stamps have been placed on the market, I searched for more Cricket Player issues that are forged. I was not surprised to find that the Saint Vincent Union Island set has been forged as well.

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 forgeries of the Saint Vincent Union Island Leaders of the World 1984 Cricket Players stamp issues in perforated and imperforate forms. All are being offered online right now as I write this on October 28, 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 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 knew for several months that eBay user balticamber2011 was offering perforated and imperforate forgeries of this issue in strips of five. This user is connected hand and foot with user accounts raimissss, armi777, asrm10 and hobbytrade. The users names according to return addressed envelopes are Raimonds Miskinis and Antanas Miskinis. Business names are Argi-stamps and or SIA stamps and are located in Latvia. Despite repeated alerts that they are selling thousands of forgeries, Despite negative feedbacks, despite a thousand "reports" to eBay these two crooks persist in selling the forgeries on a large scale on eBay. In essence, all of their accounts should be shut down permanently. Even though they sell legitimate stamps as well, because they are persistent in selling forgeries and illegal stamps they should be avoided by everyone!

I won the imperforate set of strips from balticamber2011 this month for 99c! This possibly shows that more and more collectors and dealers are catching on to what these crooks are doing. He has not recently offered the perforated set. The last time a perforated set was sold was September 4. Here is the image from the perforated lot he sold to some unknowing collector. You can see it is short two values. Possibly why he hasn't offered it as much. Who wants an incomplete set?

Here is an image of the set of imperforate forgeries I won from balticamber2011 on October 4 of this year. Appropriate negative feedback has been left.

I purchased some time ago the Leaders of the World Cricket Players stamp album which contains examples of every Cricket Players stamp that was produced by the Format International Security Printers. Therefore genuine in all regards. I will use them for comparisons.
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.

For the imperforate versions of this issue that I have acquired all of the forgeries glow brightly as this image shows.
I am certain the perforated forgeries glow exactly the same

The first and foremost clue to detect these forgeries is....
UNTIL NOW THE ONLY IMPERFORATES THAT EXIST FOR THIS ISSUE COME FROM UNIQUE PRESS SHEETS THAT WERE FOUND IN THE ARCHIVE!
Imperforates of this issue were either never produced to sell or they were lost or destroyed. Anyone selling imperforates of this issue except me unless they are on Format presentation cards are offering you forgeries! I obtained the unique panes which were cut from the unique press sheet that was with the unique color proof press sheets that were found in the archive. Nobody has offered this issue as imperforate varieties in all these years until now. All of a sudden the above mentioned cons are selling the whole set in strips of five for 99c??? You don't smell a rat???

Here are gum comparisons.

Gum Comparison of a Fake Stamp with Gum on a Genuine Stamp
Unlike the gum on many of the forgeries that are flooding the market right now the gum on the imperforate stamp forgeries 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 Original and Forgery of the 1984 Cricket Player Stamps
Again there is an obvious difference in color and texture.


Screen, Font and Color Comparison of a Fake Stamp with an Original Stamp
I will use the 1c S.N. Hartley stamp pairs for high resolution comparisons. I use 1200dpi scans for viewing.
These first comparisons show you how inferior the screens are. I compare the area around the eyes.


You can see that the screens used are much coarser. Much of the details are lost on the forgery. The forgeries still 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". To compensate the forger uses a shinier surface on the face of the stamps.

Now let's look at the fonts.


You can see that the "Leaders of the World" fonts are slightly bolder on the forgery. Note the larger screening in the blue background.

Now let's look at the Team Country Logo.


Another easy way to define the forgery. You can see the larger screen patterns on the forgery.
On the S.N. Hartley stamp the fonts for the county name "Yorkshire" are smaller and bold on genuine stamps versus much larger and lighter on the fakes.
Note the extreme color difference! Blue background on genuine versus purple background on forgeries.
I ask you....which would you rather have?

Here is one flaw that either the forger knows and uses to define the forgeries for this issue or, just another stupid blunder on the forgers part.


On every forged value of this set this flaw is constant. It is on the left stamp above the "leaders of the World" logo on the bottom.

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

Comparison of the 1c S.N. Hartley Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


Now that you know what to look for it helps yes?
Notice the difference in overall color now?
Noting other differences:
Background colors are dangerously close on this stamp pair. The genuine stamps has slightly darker blue than the forgery.
Hartley's hair is black on original stamps versus brown on the forgeries.
The county logo plaque is dark blue on genuine stamps versus purple on the forgeries.
Fonts for "Grenadines of St. Vincent" are much lighter on the genuine stamps.
A most telltale sign. The dash next to "UNION ISLAND" on the right is a "~" on genuine stamps. It is a "-" on forgeries.
The "S" and "T" in "ST." touch at the top on the forgeries. They are well spaced apart on genuine stamps.

Comparison of the 10c G.W. Johnson Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


The G.W. Johnson stamp forgeries are fairly easy to detect as well.
Background colors on genuine stamps are blue-green. On forgeries it is yellow-green.
The grass in the field is shades of green on genuine stamps versus yellow-green on forgeries.
All font differences as described above are the same.

Comparison of the 15c R.M. Ellison Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


Background colors on genuine stamps are gray-brown and very light gray-brown. On forgeries it is light brown and very light brown.
The fonts are the same as described above.

Comparison of the 55c C.S. Cowdrey Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


Background colors on genuine stamps are orange-tan. On forgeries it is deep yellow-orange.
Cowdrey's hair has shades of black in it on genuine stamps versus shades of brown on the forgeries. Extremely different as you can see.
All font differences as described above are the same.

Comparison of the 60c K. Sharp Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


Background colors on genuine stamps are black-gray and light brown. On forgeries it is brown-gray and light red-brown.
The county logo plaque is dark blue on genuine stamps versus purple on the forgeries.
Sharp's hair has shades of black in it on genuine stamps versus shades of brown on the forgeries. Extremely different as you can see.
All font differences as described above are the same.

Comparison of the 75c M.C. Cowdrey Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


An easy one to define.
Background colors on genuine stamps are black-gray and green-blue. On forgeries it is dark brown-gray and light blue.
The grass in the field is shades of green on genuine stamps versus yellow-green on forgeries.
Cowdrey's face has a reddish hue on genuine stamps versus a yellowish hue on the forgeries.
All font differences as described above are the same.

Comparison of the $1.50 G.R. Dilley Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


Another easy one to detect.
Background colors on genuine stamps are green-gray and light yellow-green. On forgeries it is black-gray and light blue-green.
The grass in the field is shades of green on genuine stamps versus yellow-green on forgeries.
All font differences as described above are the same.

Comparison of the $3 R. Illingworth Stamp Forgery with a Genuine Stamp


Another easy one to detect.
Background colors on genuine stamps are red and light red. On forgeries it is brown-red and light dark-pink.
The grass in the field is shades of green on genuine stamps versus yellow-green on forgeries.
All font differences as described above are the same.

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

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 Saint Vincent Union Island 1984 Cricket Players stamp forgeries 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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