faketips

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Spotting Fakes

Tips for Spotting Faked Error Stamps

Sadly, fakery seems to afflict virtually every collectible field. The tips that appear below should help you spot the most blatant error fakes that appear from time to time.

Paper. In some cases, the attempt to remove color darkens or lightens a stamp's paper. The darkening, which frequently resembles natural toning, but appears out of place, especially on modern issues. The Mount McKinley fake (of Scott No. 1454b) and the Family Planning fake (of Scott No. 1455), which appear in the Error Fakes Gallery, illustrate this effect. Toning on a potential modern color-omitted error should arouse suspicion. I have also observed a yellowish cast on some faked color-omitted stamps. The effect tends to be subtle but, nevertheless, apparent when compared to the paper of a normal stamp. In still other cases, such as the Sperry magenta-omitted fake (of Scott No. C114), paper is not affected at all.

The physical condition of the paper is important, too. Suspect an "error" stamp that displays an abnormal tendency to curl. Some color-omitted fakes result from exposure to chemicals in a vapor chamber such as those found in laboratories. I have even heard of fakers attempting to bleach color from mint stamps using a philatelic sweatbox of the kind sold to remove hinges. Instead of infusing the sponge in the sweatbox up with water, such as one would do to soften gum and lift a hinge, the faker infuses it with bleach or some other chemical, hoping the vapor will spirit away one or more colors. As anyone who has used a sweatbox to remove hinges knows, exposure to excessive humidity results in a stamp's gum softening and re-hardening, which invariably leaves the subject prone to curling.

In terms of overall physical appearance, we would expect a color-omitted error, exept for the absence the affected color, to exhibit the same "mint bloom," if you will, as a normal stamp of the same issue.

Gum. Gum, too, is often darkened or lightened as a result of an attempt to remove a color. The result is often subtle, unremarkable, and easily overlooked, but apparent when compared to gum on a normal stamp of the same issue. Often both gum and paper appear different than that of a genuine example.

The issue of gum is moot on used stamps, making them the target of choice for casual fakers. I cannot tell you how many used, bleached fakes I have seen: a hundred at least. It's no secret that if you expose enough different stamps to Clorox or fingernail polish remover or any number of other household chemicals, some will end up appearing to be color-omitted errors. Others will end up as color changelings. That is why I adopted a policy against listing used color-omitted errors unless genuine mint examples of the issue were known. I have written before about the fellow who approached me at show with a stock page of used "color-omitted errors." The page contained at least 50 different stamps. His story was that as an avid kiloware searcher, he had come across the individual "errors" over time. I commented that he was indeed lucky to have found so many errors because most people go through life without ever finding a single one. A strange look came over his face, like that of a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He didn't say another word, just turned and walked away.

Color. In some cases, the attempt to bleach one color succeeds but at the same time leaves another faded. A good example is the fake of the Love stamp (Scott No. 2440, shown in the Error Fakes Gallery). This is most often true of fakes printed with solid colors, as opposed to those printed by the process-color method. A solid color is an area containing only one of the various inks used to print the stamp. A process color is one achieved by mingling dots of various colors, typically cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (click here to view). This effect is visible under magnification. I should point out that some remaining colors on a genuine color-omitted error appear different than normal because of the nature of process color printing, which is used in both lithographic and photogravure printing. For example, mingling dots of yellow and cyan yields green, the precise shade determined by the density and proportion of the dots. Therefore on a genuine, yellow-omitted, process-color-printed stamp, areas of green appear cyan because of the lack of yellow ink. This effect can be observed on the Recreational Sports stamps (click here to view). On the normal stamps of this issue, red background fields were created by mingling magenta and yellow. Green was created by mingling cyan and yellow. Where the red and yellow are omitted (in this case both removed by bleaching), nothing is left but the white color of the underlying paper. Where green is omitted, cyan appears because only the yellow pigment was successfully removed.

The Fugitive Nature of Pigments. A common misconception is that certain colors are more prone to bleaching than others. That is not the case. Here we must differentiate between color and pigment. Color is what the eye detects: red, yellow, blue, etc. Pigment is the coloring agent in ink. Thus red or yellow or blue ink can be manufactured using various chemicals, dyes and substances. Some of these are more susceptible to bleaching or altering than others. Some yellows are fugitive (highly susceptible to bleaching or fading); other are not. The same hold true for red, blue, magenta, cyan, and other colors used in printing. The composition of ink frequently varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. In addition, over time, manufacturers modify their ink formulas in order to improve them. The magenta pigment on the Sperry airmail stamp (Scott No. C114) is highly fugitive. A few days in sunlight are all it takes. It's gone almost immediately and the appearance of the remaining colors, paper, and gum is unchanged. Magenta on other issues is highly colorfast and resists all attempts at alteration. Therefore, it is not possible to generalize that a certain color, such as yellow, is invariably fugitive.

Smell. It doesn't hurt to smell a suspect color-omitted stamp. A strong chemical odor is a bad sign. Not many fakes give off a strong chemical odor, but occasionally, one does. Paper is highly absorbent. It also is capable of retaining the odor of tobacco smoke, men's and women's fragrances, and so forth.

Physical Evidence. Ink consists of two components: pigment (the coloring agent) and vehicle (oil, water, spirit, etc.). Intaglio printed ink is deposited in ridges that rise above the surface of the paper. The ridges are composed primarily of vehicle. Bleaching color does nothing to remove the ridges. The only way to remove them is physically, i.e. scraping or some other form of abrasion. Rarely does a faker attempt to remove a large are of intaglio ink; the attempt disrupts the smooth surface of the paper and is readily apparent.
Scraping becomes more practical, however, when the area of color to be removed consists of only a few tiny ridges or pixels. By definition, a color-omitted error must lack all of the affected color. Not so much as a pixel should remain. In some cases, nearly all intaglio ink is omitted from a stamp -- all except a few pixels, a few tiny stray dots of color. In order to enhance the near-error to full color-omitted status, the faker tries to remove the troublesome pixels by delicately scraping or flicking them away with point of a sharp object, such as an X-acto knife. This form of tampering is invariably visible under magnification and candidates should be thoroughly examined to make sure the surface of the paper is undisturbed.
The vehicle used in lithographic printing possessed almost no visually detectable residue. Nevertheless, fakers sometimes scrape small areas of color, either individual pixels, such as on near-color-omitted stamps as described above, or small areas of color, such as the red patch on fakes of the First Man on the Moon stamp (Scott No. C76), which is illustrated in the Error Fakes Gallery. This kind of tampering is also evident under sufficient magnification.
The vehicle used in photogravure is often visible in varying degrees depending upon the ink and the stamp. A fake of the Horse Racing issue (Scott No. 1528b) had its red bleached out, but a faint ghost of vehicle remained, visible by turning the stamp and viewing at various oblique angles in bright light. Aside from the ghost of the pigment, the fake is thoroughly convincing and highly dangerous.

Source and Provenance. Knowing the background an error is useful. Errors are frequently publicized when first discovered and thus their origin known. Reputable dealers are usually only too happy to share what they know about the origin of an error. Most errors initially show up in the form of a pane, a booklet, or coil. Occasionally, an error shows up as a one-of-a-kind, and often years later. I am always immediately suspicious of these. Why? Because a single stamp is much easier to fake than a pane, a booklet, or a coil. Most "fortuitous" appearances of years-old, one-or-a-kind color-omitted errors prove to be fakes. Be especially skeptical of these. A mint pane of an error showing up years later is not nearly as suspicious, and such belated appearances of completely genuine errors have occurred on more than one occasion.

Be Observant. This is the easiest way to spot potential problems. Scrutinize an error carefully. In the case of imperforates, look for blind perforations, especially ironed-out blind perfs.

Be Skeptical. Maintain a healthy degree of skepticism, but don't let it turn into paranoia. The good news is that is extremely difficult to fake a convincing error stamp, especially a mint, color-omitted stamp.

Compare. This applies primarily to color-omitted errors. Compare the error stamp to a normal stamp of the same issue. Place the two side by side. Compare paper, gum and general appearance. The error should display the same basic characteristics (or feel, if you will) as the normal stamp, aside from the omission of color. Compare the two under both short wave and long wave ultraviolet (UV) light. A drastic difference in the appearance of the two should raise a red flag.
Expert committees use examples of known fakes where possible to compare with submissions. This is a valuable tool, but just as important, if not more important, is to compare the suspect to a genuine normal stamp of the same issue. Subjecting a stamp to a chemical or bleaching process usually also affects one or more of the other elements of the stamp aside from the ink: namely, paper, gum or physical characteristics. You'd be surprised how instructive using a normal stamp for comparison is. Tampering almost always leaves some clue; be alert for it.

Magnification. Magnification is one of the most useful tools for detecting tampering. Ten-power is the minimum; 30-power is much more revealing and virtually nothing escapes detection at this magnification.

Expertizing. Have any expensive error, especially a color-omitted error, expertized by a competent authority. If buying at auction, ask to have the stamp put on extension and submitted for a certificate. The following two organizations expertize errors (write for submission forms before sending stamps).

The Philatelic Foundation
70 West 40th Street, 15th Floor
New York, NY 10018

American Philatelic Expertizing (APEX)
100 Match Factory Place
Bellefonte, PA 16823

Phone: (814) 933-3803