Hello Gandhi Philatelist,
How can you avoid forged philatelic material.?
Following are 10 tips to avoid forgery in your stamp collection.
1) Only buy with official first day cover with special cancellation only. (Don't collect private first day covers, Don't go for regular rubber stamps)
2) Don't go for unique combination of stamps on philatelic covers or special folders.
3) Don't try to collect special addresses such as king or prime minster or president or small islands or used abroad such as Tibet or Nepal, or any hard to reach location etc. (any uniqueness, needs to be thoroughly looked).
4) Avoid all kind of SPECIMEN stamps, Overprint stamps, ERRORS stamps etc.
5) Avoid special cancellation such as 1969 issued during Gandhi Birth Centenary or 2009 Germany special cancellation from Winnenden. It's all BOGUS because it never exist.
6) Don't collect used covers or register covers as chances of forgery is very high and dont' think receiving or destination CDS is also genuine or register label. All of them can be forged too.
7) Don't look at the selling price it sold for, because it might be false indication as buyer might not paid or shill bidding or mutual withdraw etc are possible. Also don't look # of bids or # of offers as this can be done by using their other ids or help from friends.!!
8) Also don't think it available from Greece or Turkey or Japan or China is correct location of seller, because it can be forged too or get help from friends or relatives living abroad.
9) Don't think as INVESTMENT and all false propaganda & glorification of Gandhi stamps or China stamps or others stamps by various philatelic & investment blogs and website, philatelic magazine, stamps forums, stamps discussion board, stamp catalogs, philatelic exhibition, philatelic lectures, philatelic handbooks etc.
10) USE your common sense and THINK. You decide!!
After reading above tips what do you think about following 2 first day cover from India Gandhi stamps.
Following is official cover but cancellation is private. So it will be very hard to find out actually it was cancelled on 15 August 1948 or forged.
Why apply regular cancellation on official cachet cover? (Chances are someone might have blank cover)
Also special cancellation is very hard to get and also it's hard to make exact copy of special cancellation, so just use regular post mark cancel from post office on official cachet cover.!!
Following is private cover or envelope with regular cancellation of 15 August 1948 from Calcutta post office, so again it will be very hard to find out whether it is genuine or forged.
It might be done any other date!!
There is no philatelic expert in world who will able to prove it's genuine because it's very hard to get all kinds of details.
I think it's very tempting to forged first day cover instead of selling MINT stamps because if you see the selling price.!!
But I will not even pay $30 for this covers.!! Because to me it don't justify as collectible item and chances of forgery is very very high.
Also it will be very hard to find out whether forged stamps are affixed on this private cover as there are plenty of it available.
Following are some forgery blog post I wrote in past.
1911 First Aerial Mail post forgery card (one of the greatest philatelic blunder in forgery) with receiving and sending postmark.
Even Queen Victoria overprint stamp of Indian state is forged with RPS certificate.!! Now think what happen to FORGER.!! Nothing.!! As no one cares.
Reprinted label are sold as original 1930 Pre-Independence Gandhi Boycott label!! A philatelic fantasy.!! What a SCAM!!!
Fake 10 Rupees SERVICE stamps is available in large quantity.!!
What is Tibet 1949 register cover with 1948 Gandhi stamps without stamps from Tibet and Indian Embassy of Nepal?
FAKE Gandhi specimen stamp.!!
This is not COUNTERFEIT. It's BOGUS stamp.!! Because no country name on this.!!! (was selling from $43000 -$2000)
Forged 1948 Gandhi FDC with Indian Embassy of Nepal cancellation!!
FORGED India 1948 Gandhi stamps private first day cover F.D.C!!
OVERPRINT stamp issue from Cameroun, Nicragua & Togo. Does not make sense at all someone printing on stamp by mistake. This is delibrate act.
Even FAKE Error stamps. (Color faded with sunlight or other chemicals.!!!)
Why 2009 FAKE or BOGUS (not approved by Germany post) Germany Special Cancellation on October 2nd.? (This makes all 1969 special cancellation questionable!!, because who knows what have happen in 1969.!!). Also don't know up to what stage collector goes to take benefit. !!
BIDDERS!! "hitlerandgandhi" just to glorify Gandhi stamps they increase price of 1948 Gandhi FDC and Used covers.!!! (Images are not enough to understand this so read following blog posts.!!)
I am not expert and I am in this hobby for 4 years only so you don't have to believe me or trust me. But you can think about it. There are more experts with 20-30-40-50 years sitting around with stamp hobby and there are expertizing certificate which might help you.
If you don't want to go through all this don't think as Investment and think as "Philately Greed" and you will be SAFE.
I think collector, dealers, seller, forger will do anything for money such as making BOGUS cancellation from Winnenden to celebrate non-violence for school shooting or plane crash cover, forged 1948 stamps, Nepal Indian Embassy cancellation, Gandhi SERVICE stamp with forged Sunday cancellation, letter reaching after 2 years or reaching in 3 days from India to France by removing stamps and black ink of rubber stamp etc.
It's nothing new. In stamp collection it has been going on 160+ years since Penny Black. But counterfeit or forgery is going on since 700 B.C. ( 2500+ years).
Thanks
Gandhi Stamps Club.
Risk of stamp collecting in 21st Century.!!
