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Forgeries on Postage Stamps
The stamp forgers have never missed a chance to make money by forgery. Their activities are twofold, and therefore two major types of forgeries are distinguished: a. forgeries to defraud the post; and (b) forgeries to defraud stamp collectors. There have never been many forgeries of the first type. The forgers were usually soon discovered and severely punished. Every State protects its stamps in a similar way to bank notes and the penalties are just as high. In spite of all precautions, however, a number of fraudulent stamps passed unnoticed and were not spotted by postal employees. They are normally found used and cancelled on covers. Such forgeries are of great interest to specialized collectors. It is a fraudulent imitation of a postage stamp, but it has served a postal purpose.
Stamp forgeries used on genuine letters are very rare and are able to fetch high prices. Most interesting is the case of the famous GB ‘Stock Exchange’ forgeries. In 1898, supplies of forged copies of the 1867 green on shilling stamps from old telegraph forms used at the London Stock Exchange Post Office came on the market. Although the forger was never identified, it was assumed that one of the postal clerks used these skilful forgeries. He accepted cash from the sender and, instead of the genuine shilling stamps, used his forgeries and kept the cash.
Very similar is the history of the forgeries of the first Czechoslovak stamps. The stamps forged were the 1919 brown 100 heller stamp, the ultra-marine 200 heller and the olive green 300 heller stamps, showing Hradcany Castle in Prague. These forgeries were discovered in 1934 in postal kiloware and all of them had been cancelled at Vejprty. Only the 300 heller was known as far back as 1920 in mint condition. Practically only cancelled copies worked their way into the hands of philatelists; they were produced solely to cheat the post office. The Vjeprty Forgeries are very rare. Since it took fifteen years for them to be identified, the forger was never found. It is presumed that he was a post office clerk who did not sell these stamps for normal letters but used them on parcel cards. When a customer paid for these, the forger affixed them himself, knowing that the parcel cards were not handed to the addressee but kept at the post office for a number of years.
Forgeries to defraud stamp collectors, on the other hand, are much more common. Since they were never intended to serve any postal purpose, they have not philatelic value. There are some collectors, specialists and experts who are interested in forgeries. They serve as documentary material, their details and peculiarities are noted so that genuine stamps may be distinguished from them.
Complete forgeries are imitations of stamps in which there is nothing genuine, neither the printing, nor the paper, cancellation, gum, perforation not overprint. Such forgeries were produced by Fournier. These forgeries are the least dangerous as the forger never manages to duplicate all the characteristics of the genuine stamps.
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