Does anyone have a link to a site that details counterfeit stamps from Lebanon. We had an old thread on this, but the link provided for that is no longer good. I was able to find a site that only had a couple of stamps as examples.

Thanks!

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re: Lebanon Counterfeits

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re: Lebanon Counterfeits

thanks

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Rhinelander

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18 Dec 2015
12:16:09pm

re: Lebanon Counterfeits

I also have a couple paired originals and forgeries that I kept to one time make an article of it. All from the same work shop; mostly Lebanon, but also some Jordan, Syria, etc. I will see to post some scans tonight.

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Rhinelander

Support the Hobby -- Join the American Philatelic Society
18 Dec 2015
10:09:57pm

re: Lebanon Counterfeits

I started collecting the fakes, paired with a duplicate original if i had one, a good while ago. Th plan was/is to eventually provide some systematic list/guidance. It is not really on the forefront of my various philatelic projects. Nothing may ever come of it. So, I amhappy to share some of what I accumulated thus far.

I probably could show a dozen more, but I believe you are already getting the idea. This workshop targeted minimum catalog value stamps from Lebanon, primarily, with a sprinkle of Jordan, Syria and "area". Seriously, why would anybody put time and effort to fake this stamp:




The workshop did a really good job making sure that their products are everywhere. Because there are probably in the hundreds of different low value stamps targeted, I believe it may be more helpful to provide general comments, rather than attempting to picture every single one. Here is what I have found as common characteristics. Take this as opinion, not 'shooting from the hip kind of opinion," learned opinion, but nevertheless, it is only the best I have come to believe. So, it is all subject to change as better information becomes available.

1) Michel warns of existent forgeries of some stamps. Likewise Varo Tyler's (2000), Focus on Forgeries (expand. edition) list a few. Many, many more exist than acknowledged in these two sources.

2) To the best of my ability I believe all forgeries to be typographed. The originals have been printed in a variety of printing methods, lithography, typography, and offset printing. Knowing your printing methods pays out. Relative, for instance, to offset printing, typography shows squashed lines along edges and lettering. Compare the offset printed 2.50P cedar tree stamp above to its typographed companion.

3) Often, but not always, the fake stamps are printed on a distinct yellowish/cream-colored paper relative to the white paper of the originals.

4) I am impressed with the perforation job. The stamps that have been faked span several decades and originals are line or comb perfed in various gauges. For the most part, no real blunders appear to have been made. There are very few I discovered where the perfs are clearly wrong, for instance for the postage due stamp above, but generally perfs appear correct or "within the margin of error" as to not being a helpful discerning characteristics for the most part. Still, checking the accuracy of the perforation of a suspicious stamp should be standard procedure.

5) All of the fakes I have in my small reference collection are cancelled with generally illegible cancels. If letters can be made out, they suggest Beyrouth. Accordingly, strong legible postmarks from other towns are probably a good sign. The cancellation ink also has a certain blotchy appearance that strikes one as wrong (at least after you look at several of them and see how the appearance is all the same).

Not sure if this is helpful. Like I said, I am collecting and systematizing these myself yet.



10 Mils is original; others are fake.

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re: Lebanon Counterfeits

Forgery from the Grand Zero series

you would notice the yellowish color of the paper in the second and third rows.

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Rhinelander

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19 Dec 2015
10:19:58am

re: Lebanon Counterfeits

@ Michael

You are making me nervous about my postage dues. I had not really taken a closer look at those. Several do not look kosher to me with some squashed lines and illegible cancels. However, because I am lacking the necessary quantity for comparisons, I cannot help you specifically.


@ Mtrabz

Too bad you do not have access to more helpful information. You should be right at the source. I just like interesting stuff, this is why I have put these stamps away. I really do not collect Lebanon all that intensively.

As for the image you are showing, the direct comparison may be misleading. The top two stamps in your scan should be from the 1947 set that was issued on greyish paper. The 1949 reissue was printed on white paper and has some minor design differences. Compare the number zero in your two 50 Piaster stamp. The wider zero of the second stamps identifies this stamp as the 1949 re-issue, so you would not want to compare that stamp against the 50 Piaster stamps in the top row which is from the 1947 set. The paper of these two is supposed to be different. The re-issue has white paper and yellow gum. If the 10 piaster is one of the forgeries this would be bad, because so far I have not seen any octagonal cancels used on forgeries (which means nothing, due to my small sample!) and this would be a first.

For comparison, see below at top, the 20 Piaster from the 1947 set, in the orange and red-orange color varieties, and below the 20 Piaster from the 1949 re-issue (wide zero).



I believe all of these to be genuine. However, Michel notes that typographed forgeries of the 1947 set exist, which again means nothing. There is no note in the catalog for almost all of the stamps that I have been showing so far, so forgeries of the 1949 re-issue may exist as well. The difference in paper (grey vs. more white) is actually very visible in the original stamp, and I am amazed to see that this difference has completely vanished in my scan. BTW, the 50 Piaster with the wide zero (Scott #C147B) is an expensive stamp. That would be the first example of one of these forgeries inflicting economic damage. All the other examples are 10c stamps, no matter what, real or fake. Of course if the postage dues have also been forged, to Michael's point, there would be many better ones among these too.


Here are two more, the bottom one is one of the few described in Tyler (p. 156).



Neither of the two are flagged in Michel as to "forgeries exist."

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re: Lebanon Counterfeits

I've been very busy as of late. As soon as I get a chance, I'll post images of the purported counterfeit postage dues.

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rrraphy

Retired Consultant APS#186030
22 Dec 2015
06:10:10pm

re: Lebanon Counterfeits

A quick download from my files...counterfeits Lebanon stamps (compared to genuine in some cases). As best as I could tell. This dates back a number of years, and I have not updated them. rrr...
















Just a quick search in my files. Generally the printer's label is poorly focused and registered. Paper is also different

 
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