I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to the readers of this website, Kristian Paaschburg, my first contributing author. Kristian stumbled into my website several weeks ago and we have had some great email exchanges and I asked him if he would like to share his story about this stamp.
A Little History of a Private Perf.
Imperforate sheets of 400 stamps were first issued in 1906 on the request of several makers of vending and affixing machines. The machine manufacturers made coils from imperforate sheets and applied various perforations to suit the particular needs of their machines. These privately applied perforations were used for many years and now form a chapter of postal history.
Counterfeits are prevalent, especially of items having a basic imperforate variety valued far lower than the vendingmachine coil.
New Rev5.1 Design, November 2007
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Another Bogus Scott 519 - New November 2002
The Fake Scott 346 Private Perf - New October 2002
The Most Impressive Fake Scott 62B
The Secret Life of an Altered Scott 72
The Secret Life of a Chemically Altered Scott 78
The Secret Life of an Altered RW5 Duck Stamp
A Fake Scott #320 with Schermack Type III Perforations
Fake Scott #743a
Detecting a Flat Plate Press Vertical Coil, Fake Scott 441
Fake Reperfed 514a
Fake Reperfed 508c
Fake Reperfed 546
Fake Scott 143 w / Bogus Grill
Fake Scott 137 w / Same Bogus Grill as Fake 143
Fake Scott 139 w / Same Bogus Grill as Fake 137 and 143
Fake Scott 315 - Revised June 2002
Fake Reperfed Scott 519 - Revised June 2002
A Gallery of Bogus Stuff Part 1
A Gallery of Bogus Stuff Part 2
A Gallery of Bogus Stuff Part 3
A Gallery of Bogus Stuff Part 4
A Gallery of Bogus Stuff Part 5
Credits, Inspiration and Links of Interest
Bibliography of Research Material I Use for this Site
Download the Schermack Type III Go-NoGo Gauge
By Kristian Paaschburg © 2002
As normal, average stamp-collectors we rarely buy the very expensive stamps, and when we do, we buy from respected dealers or big auction-houses. None of us would ever dream of buying the very, very expensive stamps without some kind of certificate or assurance.
Why is it then, that when we on the internet are offered rare stamps at discount prices from dealers we have never heard of and with only a scanned image for description, most of us abandon our usual care? The answer I am afraid is greed. We all know that no-one will sell you something worth $500 for $20, but we still give it a try because: what if……?
I would like to recant a short tale of my own foolishnes – not as a lesson, but just for the fun of it, and for the fun of philately.
About a year ago, (Jan 2nd 2001) I bought this stamp on ebay. It was described as:
Scott #346 4c brown with private Brinkerhoff Type I perfs. CV $75.
I believe I won the auction with a bid of $16. Great deal, right? Wrong. First of all, anybody can see that this isn’t Brinkerhoff type I perfs, and everyone knows, that imperferate stamps should have bigger margins than this. In spite of that, I bought the stamp, thinking that maybe, just maybe this was something interesting after all.
Genuine Brinkerhoff Perforation Types. To the left is a Type I and to the right is a Type II. The Type II are without knife cuts and did not pass through the vending machines. Many varieties are known to have been perforated for philatelic purposes and never used in vending machines. The Brinkerhoff Type II is such a variety. Notice that all Brinkerhoff style perforations are endwise coils.
As soon as I got it home, I began the usual identification progress.
I initially ignored the private perfs, and as always with Washington-Franklin stamps measured the design to determine the type of printing. This stamp measures 18_ by 22 mm, which makes it flat plate printed. No matter how much I looked, I could not detect a watermark, so exit #346, which has doubleline watermark, normally easy to detect.
The stamp is imperferate, but measured only 20 mm from side to side and 23 mm in height. Both measurement are very much on the small side, and as #346 is the only imperf 4c stamp in the series, the conclusion is that the original perforations had been cut off, to make the stamp appear imperferate.
There is nothing to learn from the cancellation, but using the Wonder Color Guide, I determined this color to be "yellow brown".
With no watermark, flat plate printed, previously perfed it can only be either Scott #465 or #503. Since #465 is darker in colour whereas #503 comes in lighter colours, among them yellow brown, my conclusion is that this is in fact an altered #503, CV $0.25.
The private perfs do not match any private perfs known to me. They are of the size and shape of Mailometer Type I, but with 2 holes missing. The distance between the rows of perfs is only 18 mm, so it must have been made row by row, as this is less than the width of even the stampdesign. No affixing or vending machine could use this small measurement. These private perfs are simply too private.
The mystery remains why anyone would turn a #503 into something that doesn’t exist. Normally that would be a foolish thing to do, as nobody will ever buy such an obvious fake -
But then again, I did!
PS. The seller offered a full refund, but I kept the stamp as a reminder to myself, that if on first impression something appears not right, then most likely - it isn’t.
Kristian Paaschburg
DENMARK
Genuine Brinkerhoff Perforation Types. To the left is a Type IIa and to the right is a Type IIb. The Type IIa and IIb have knife cuts were used or passed through vending machines. Notice that all Brinkerhoff style perforations are endwise coils.
Editors Note:
Below is an email from Kristian following up on his article that you have just read. I have edited out some information as requested, but suffice to say we know who the seller of the altered Scott 503 on eBay is! We also know he is still selling altered / misrepresented and misidentified items as of this publication. (October 2002) If you purchase stamps online, be careful as it's a dangerous place.
Hi Richard
further to my mail earlier with story on the 346, I dug into my files. The result was a bit scary. ........ From SCADS web-site I can see that he is apparently known for misrepresentation espec. concerning trimmed perfs. ........... I have no idea whether it was intentional misrepresentation from the sellers side. .......... I haven't got the original complete description on ebay, so I can't say for sure, but I may have gotten away luckier than I originally thought.
Kristian
In the next few weeks and months I will be adding more images and words for a whole bunch of fakes I have purchased on Ebay and since I am not worried that the fakers will retaliate I will even tell you who they are. This is installment number 16 (I think) so come back and visit as I will probably be doing a new page every other week. I can be reached at: nerdman@ix.netcom.com
Thanks for visiting this site. I hope you learn something new as I am having fun doing this and stirring up the "doodoo" so to speak. You, the visitor, have my permission to copy my pages and images for the purpose of showing others how to look for fakes and forgeries. You also have my permission to link to my pages and to share the link paths to others. I only ask in return for you to send me an e-mail if I have made a mistake or have done some other technical blunder that in my rush to put these pages up would cause the visitor confusion. Please also visit my other website www.slingshotvenus.com and support the live music arts.