Detecting Forged OS Punctures on Australian Commonwealth Issues

Buying from Ebay? Things to look out for

Ebay is the largest online marketplace for stamps - at any time there are approximately 1.5 million lots available under the category of "Stamps". So while Ebay provides a huge selection of items, it also attracts many less-than-honest sellers.

Certainly, some sellers offer forged material unknowingly, but the number of sellers offering forged material time after time among their lots for sale is quite staggering. Fortunately some of these sellers are not very smart, while others continue to use the same seller-id even after they have been outed for selling forgeries.

In the specific area we are concerned with, Australian official perfins, collectors should follow a few simple rules to safeguard their wallets from being lightened. The simple rules are these:

  • Know your subject. Study the series you are collecting, and identify the key stamps in the series (remembering the more expensive stamps make the most lucrative targets for forgers).

  • Learn how to search for completed listings. The importance of this will be shown later, but it is vital you know how to check for a sale within the last 3 months (the time period that Ebay leaves sold items online) of an unpunctured version of the stamp you are seeking.

  • Learn who are the trustworthy sellers and who are not. In this regard, there is excellent information available on Stampboards (www.stampboards.com), where many members have, over the years, exposed a large number of fraudulent sellers.

  • Seek assistance from other club members. Among the TSC membership are two very experienced collectors in this field, and they are always willing to give advice.

  

A Timewarp

This overprint (and its 2d companion) comes up on Ebay every now and again. It is usually offered with the OS puncture used by the NSW Government (the S has 12 holes, rather than the usual 11 on the Federal puncture.)

This puncture can never be genuine.

The underlying stamp was a short-lived issue in Aug 1930, overprinted because of a change in postal rates.

The OS puncture with a 12-hole S was also a short-lived issue, used only by NSW and never Federally, in May 1933.

The two could never co-exist.

An example of an impatient forger

This stamp was purchased on Ebay on 6 April 2020. Ebay, in its "wisdom", makes it impossible to identify the purchaser - but we didn't have to wait long to find out. About 2 months, in fact.


In early June, Ebay seller starcollectables offered this stamp on Ebay:

Fingerprinting the two images shows without any doubt that the two stamps are one and the same - but miraculously, in a period of 6 weeks more than 100 years after the stamp was issued, it has gained an OS puncture. The OS Fairy, pehaps? Or could starcollectables have had a finger in the pie? You be the judge.

This shows how cocky some forgers can be. starcollectables relied on the fact that a gullible purchaser would not even check Ebay's "sold items" to see if possible foul play was afoot. How much more brazen can a forger get?

If you search Stampboards (www.stampboards.com) for starcollectables, you will see that this ebay id is just one of many ids associated with The Sydney Forger.

This puncture is a very good forgery, and would fool most collectors. Fortunately there are enough small faults in the puncture that expert analysis can identify the puncture as a forgery - but it does show just how careful you need to be when purchasing from unknown sources.

The two images above are courtesy of www.stampboards.com



An example of a stupidly blatant forger

This stamp was purchased on Ebay on 27 October 2021. This seller, one-stop-stamp-shop has been the subject of discussion on Stampboards in the past, both for selling forgeries and for shill bidding. For details, see this Stampboards thread. This offering (item 334185697360) and a similar item (234242047802, which appears to have an identical puncture), would only fool the absolute beginner, but it is symptomatic of what is available on Ebay to trap the unwary.

It is also a good lesson in using feedback - a large feedback score does not necessarily translate to a reputable seller.