The first issue of Fiji--a series printed from ordinary printers' type
at the office of a local newspaper, and known amongst philatelists as
the "_Fiji Times_ Express" stamps--has been twice "reprinted" from
a special setting-up of similar type; but, as the original printing
_forme_ had been "distributed," even a re-setting of the actual type
would produce little less than a forgery of a class euphemistically
described as "official imitations."
The greatest sinners in this respect were the officials at Jassy,
Roumania, who, in response to numerous applications for copies of the
four very rare stamps of July, 1858, caused to be made, at different
times, no less than three varying types of the 54, 81, and 108
paras--which they sold as genuine. It was only in the late 'seventies
that this official fraud was thoroughly exposed.
As I have indicated, it is impossible, within the limits of a single
chapter, to do more than touch the fringe of the subject of forgery
and "faking," and the dissection of a few skilful imitations would
not materially add to the warning which the previous few pages will
have conveyed--that the interest taken by the forger in Philately is a
purely mercenary one, detrimental to our scientific hobby and damaging
to our pockets; the collector must always be on the defensive and on
the look-out for pitfalls, not relying too much on a guarantee of
genuineness (which only secures reimbursement of money paid) to prevent
the admission into his album of a forgery or clever fake.
The prevalence of forgery--and the almost equally reprehensible
"reprinting"--should be no insurmountable obstacle to the collector;
rather it should be a spur to prick the sides of his intent to intimate
study and patient research. By collecting in a thorough and scientific
manner, the collector will so impress on his memory the general
features of the majority of the world's issues, together with the
details of the safeguards afforded by paper, watermark and perforation,
that the first glimpse at a forgery or fake will reveal a something
which at once rouses suspicion that the particular label is not the
legitimate offspring of the Post Office.
The "bogus" stamp, that is, the fraudulent label which has never
existed as an original, is not to be feared: standard catalogues of
the present day contain a practically accurate list of the designs
of all issued stamps, and information as to new issues is so widely
disseminated by the philatelic press that the chances of successfully
placing a bogus stamp or issue are very small.
There have been frauds of this kind, but they are so few, and their
character is so easily ascertained from the perusal of any catalogue
deserving of the name, that it will suffice to merely mention two or
three countries which have had bogus issues foisted on them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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