Foro de Filatelia Argentina

In their press sheet PostNL reported:

Den Haag, 27 december 2011 – PostNL has found forged stamps being on offer to the public through web sites for a price far below the face value of the stamps. The damage has been estimated by PostNL to be several millions of euros.

The authenticitty systems of PostNL recognize the fake stamps after which the transport of that particular letter, parcel stops. According to article 216 of the Penal Code a person who forges stamps or uses them as real can be sentenced a 6 years imprisonment.

The sets of forged stamps can be recocgnized by the fact that they are always offered sticked on blanc sheets of self-adhesives. They can be bought through internet web sites - see the list below. These forged stamps are hardly distinguishable from the real products. Only experts can tell as the forged stamps do not show certain features they ought to have! So far the self-adhesive sheets can be found mainly used on parcels and registered mail. They were used for international post as well.

An example of such mail with forged stamps can be found here.

http://www.postnl.nl/voorthuis/postzege ... ostzegels/

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This message placed in the Dutch Stampblog caused a lot of emotional reactions. Mainly because of the incorrect statements and its pulling people's leg.

Postage stamps after 1977 are still valid and that includes the then current definitives. The guilders should be converted into euro-cents while using them for franking. Collectors have massive piles of stamps that are virtually worthless on the philatelic market. For years stamps are bought far below face value by companies and societies to be used for franking. This is not illegal! And also it is not illegal to prepare self-adhesive stickers with a specific amount of franking to make sticking easier on parcels and registered mail. Sheets of self-adhesives can be bought through the internet. The use of phosphorescence had to do with postal automation and has nothing to do with anti-forgery measures. Indeed, it is true that all postage stamps at the moment have phosphorescence and thus stamps without it are suspect! But for instance the high value Queen Juliana stamps are still valid and during the period 1969-1981 they had never had any phosphorescence! In 1981, when the Dutch paper supply was problematic, the stamp printers started to use the same paper they had been using for the lower value - phosphorescent paper supplied by Harrison and Sons - for the guiders values as well. Again, this had nothing to do with postal automation or anti-forgery measures.



The slogan authenticity system is supposed to impress people but every collector know how easy it is to stick a no matter what stamp look-alike and it goes through in most cases! Forged stamps can be recognized of course with some effort but I do not believe that PostNL has a special system for this! I will refer to some aspects later on that might be helpful in recognizing forgeries.

Apart from the phosphorescence PostNL has not given us any clue so far as to why the stamps should be forgeries! In the mean time all stamp traders have been discredited enormously. The general public was handed out a flyer in every sales point of PostNL to warn them against A4-sheets with self-adhesive pre-prepared sticked on stamps suggesting that all the stamps are forgeries!



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What can be found?

It is clear that the use of stamps in the old guilders currency - stamps for which collectors no longer had any interest - was in the following - inland parcels and registered, but also foreign mail! Still the self-adhesives were rather meant for inland use and the examples we get from PostNL seem to corroborate this: €0.46 , €0.92, €1.38, €1.84 (the various weighty steps for an inland letter) ; €6.75 (parcel upto 20kg); €7.00 (registered letter) en. For usage abroad (Europe) we have €6.32 (letter up to 500g) , €9.48 (registered mail), €14.30 (registered parcel up to 2kg)

The self-adhesives are supposed to contain always one stamp with phosphorescence at least those for inland letters. The set-up and cancelling machines would need so. But that has nothing to do with the so-called „authenticity systems“ of PostNL. Parcels and registered mail, let alone foreign mail, do not pass these machines . For that mail phosphorescence of stamps is not relevant.

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Indeed there were forged stamps!

Stamp collectors aren't that easily mislead! And this fraude case urged everybody to get material and see for themselves which stamps were forged and which not! And how to tell them from real stamps!

The first suspicion that forged stamps were involved was uttered in Postzegelblog pretty quick! The too perfect perforation or the excellent outlook of the stamps at all! Some wrote that he forged stamp looks better than my original! What enhanced the suspicion was the lack of phosphorescence of several stamps [Queen Beatrix] or a supposed luminescence that was different from the usual [44c euro-cent].

In the meantime I got to see some of the alleged forged stamps myself when asked to write a report for the Dutch Philatelic Magazine Filatelie - preferably yet in their February 2012 issue! Hence, the hurry!

The examples of self-adhesive sheets given by PostNL on their web site all refer to to the following definitives:

Queen Juliana 5g and 10g counter sheet stamps
Queen. Beatrix 1g50, 2g, 2g50, 6g50, 7g coilstamps
Queen Beatrix 3g and 4g counter sheet stamps
Queen Beatrix € 1 and € 3 counter sheet stamps
Numeral € 0.44 coilstamps
Numerals € 0.02 and € 0.05 from blocks of 10.

The latter are not forged as it would be highly unlikely to take the trouble to forge such low values. The incidental commemorative stamps such as thee 70c Jamboree 1995, the 45c Leidsche Universiteit, the 70c Sesamstraat etc are real! The Queen Juliana definitives are not forged either, as said before, there was no need for them to have phosphorescence and judging from the pictures PostNL provides they are real.



The 3g and 4g Queen Beatrix seem real as well. The other stamps - the 44c and the various Queen Beatrix stamps are forged indeed!!

The sheet I have seen contain 10 x 22g+€ 0.88 (= € 10.80) or 24 x € 1.38 (3rd weight step = 3x € 0.46). Also a loose used sticker had € 6.78 instead of the needed. € 6.75 ...



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And they contain the forged stamps mentioned above predominantly. Some have ONLY forged ones!!

How could this have happened?? Why did it take so long before PostNL took action? Rumours have that already more than half a year ago the forged postage stamps were in circulation! Was it that hard to recognize them and to tell forged stamps from real ones???





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How to recognize the forged postage stamps?

- phosphorescence at the front of a postage stamp is standard practice nowadays in the Netherlands although the PostNL is trying to save money on all fronts. First we had phosphorescence all-over the front, now we just have a L-shaped bar and we can expect the L-shaped black printed bar to take over the phosphorescence function in postal automation before they get bankrupt or swallowed by DHL or some other firm So no phosphorescence will do then!!

- the various printing techniques - recess and photogravure in particular - could stop forgeries for some time but offset-litho can be provided in any around the corner copyshop! And if not there, then somewhat farther away in this big bad world!

- the almost endless offering of new postage stamps does not really invite you to forged postage stamps! Quite some comfort! It turns out that even forgerers have their priorities!

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No, the forgeries we have at hand are just a restricted number of definitives, higher face values printed originally in bicoloured photogravure but rather easy to forge using offset-litho plus a standard inland letter stamp in tricoloured photogravure of which the background lines were not even supposed to be reminescent of photogravure! Its green parts did show a nice screen but that eventually did no play a role either.The alleged coil stamps 1g50-, 2g, 2g50, 6g50 en 7g] all have a well copied background without a screen although the original did have a screen that hardly ever was visible! And the rosette of the 6g50 is much better than that of the original!












The coil stamps have no vertical perforation and the horizontal perforation is kiss-die cut clearly and the round ending of the teeth too perfect to be true! The real postage stamps have been torn and you can always see the fibers. The utmost left tooth is somewhat wider than the utmost right tooth, but that can occur in the reel stamps as well. Its paper is very glossy and there is no sign of phosphorescence!


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The € 1 and € 3 have been kiss-die cut on 4-sides but the teeth are too round to be true. Real stamps always show traces of being torn apart unless scissors were used... On 4 points - the second and one but last tooth of the longer sides of stamps, both at the left and at the right trace of being torn can be seen! Apparently the stamps were stuck together at these points! The corners themselves are not real! They should have arc-shaped indent, not a tiny cut! The paper has a very glossy surface as well and does not show any sign of phosphorescence.







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The 44 eurocent was kiss-die cut on 4 sides just like the two Euro-stamps. Here too we find the traces of beingtorn at the same positions. The 4 corners are more or less as they should be - arc-shaped! The guilloches lines of the design seem original and so does the screen of the green ciphers. We see the attempt of producing a L-shaped phoshorescent bar but, alas, under the UV-lamp it only reacts salmon and the background rectangle rather purplish. The real stamps show a clearly yellow L-shaped bar and the rectangle does not react under UV. But the most important thing here is, as with the two other euro stamps: the kiss-die cut with the 4 joins!







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What went wrong?

The suspected stamps had been discovered a long time ago. Why this lack of action? Why now? To all insiders the obvious target is NOT fighting forgeries but killing off the massive use and sale of stamps for franking that could be bought by users at a price far below the face value. In short, PostNL could not afford to lose money in a shrinking market for service for which they had been paid ages ago! More than a 100.000 collectors having an overflow of stamps originally worth some € 1.000 each person (during 20 years a € 50 subscription for a year set) is aready more than a € 100 million!? Exaggeration???? Who suffered such loss? OK, it is your own fault, you should have know better.

On the other hand, PostNL could have suffered a lot less, should they have used the barcode postage stamps for parcels and registered mail. These postage stamps were introduced in 1995 [parcels] and in 2000 [registered mail]. Making their use obligatory - at some point we all thought it was obligatory! - and maintain the rules could have save them a lot of trouble!

Lots of trouble for PostNL since no matter what forged stamps were used for service granted by PostNL. Maybe not at such large scale as they claim?

Lots of trouble for collectors as well, since the only way they could receive some money in return for all these practically worthless stamps was using them up for franking. That has been killed off in a merciless way by PostNL and discredited. And so the bonafide philatelic trade got discredited!

We will have to wait for PostNL to let us know why they acted as they did and what was the origin of the forged stamps. And whether the legitimate use of stamps in the guilder denomination can return....

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Some people can not believe the 44c is forged!

But please, do compare the teeth!








Which one is real!?

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Do you still have some doubts????

Why would they leave the details out!?





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Thank you for posting the story Rein!!

The 44c exists in two versions - legally - and were sold differently:

- coil stamps in photogravure
- business sheets in offset-litho

all stamps kiss-die cut, although the stamps from the business sheets always had a tab at their left side:





The tab can be torn off but then you will see the fibers:





The green parts have no screen what so ever!



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Interesting! continue posting!