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Fake stamps are becoming increasingly harder to spot as Chinese counterfeit replicas flood into the country.
Royal Mail has seen a rise in complaints that stamps bought from legitimate stores were being deemed fraudulent, slamming those caught up in the ruse with a £5 fine, according to a report from The Daily Telegraph.
The convincing fakes are being unknowingly bought from wholesalers or online stores such as Amazon and eBay before being sold on to oblivious customers. Four Chinese suppliers are able to print up to one million counterfeit Royal Mail stamps a week, according to the paper, which are being sold to British retailers for as little as 4p each.
“Some counterfeit stamps are very sophisticated and they can easily deceive the general public,” Oscar Young, from London’s rare stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons, told i.
“Unless you were an expert or knew the tell-tale signs, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
So how can you tell if your stamps are genuine or just fake? With the help of the expert philatelist, i identifies some of the best tell-tale signs to spot a counterfeit.
Barcode
Mr Young said the barcode was the “most distinguishing feature” of any fake stamp because genuine versions are “printed in relief” – a technique whereby the printing surface is cut away so that the resulting image appears raised on the surface.
“If you run your finger across them – you can feel them often on the fakes – they’re completely flat and 2D. They’re not three dimensional at all,” the expert philatelist said.
Barcodes were introduced for British stamps in 2022 with the aim of cutting down the number of counterfeits.
A spokesperson for Royal Mail said due to the barcodes “we have been able to significantly reduce stamp fraud through added security features”.
Adding: “Every barcode is unique which allows us to identify whether a stamp is genuine or not, and whether they have been previously used.”
Colour and visual appearance
Mr Young explained that “the colours and just overall impressions can seem just off” on fake stamps.
“In places there can be great variations, and colour can be quite pale, quite dark,” he added.
Royal Mail introduced the newest colour scheme in 2022 – “plum purple” for first class and “holly green” for second. Stamps for large packages also had a makeover in the same year with “marine turquoise” for first class, and “pine green” for second.
It is important to note that the barcode next to the genuine stamp will always match in colour.
Perforations
“The perforations around the stamp as well are also different,” Mr Young explained.
“Usually they’re more sort of square-edged because they’re die cut.” This is a process where a die stamp creates shear webs around low-strength materials, instead of simply cutting, for example.
“You get a slight square edge to the end of them, whereas on the forgeries they’re actually quite spiky.”
Security ovals
Among the other introductions in 2022 to clamp down on counterfeits, Royal Mail started printing each stamp with two distinct security ovals.
It is still likely this will be replicated on any fake stamps but customers are encouraged to check where the ovals line up.
On a first class stamp the Roman numeral I should fit inside the left oval, not breaching the outline. The S and T, denoting first class, should then sit either side of the right middle portion of the oval, just below the centre.
The top of the right oval should reach just below King Charles’s nape on a legitimate stamp, with the top-left portion of the right oval just breaching his neck.
Where are the stamps bought from?
The expert philatelist said if customers are purchasing their stamps from an unreliable source below face value, it is almost certainly too good to be true.
“That’s usually a sign that the stamp may not be genuine,” Mr Young said.
He urged anyone to directly visit their local post office branch or buy their stamps on Royal Mail’s website to be completely sure what they are busing is genuine.
Mr Young said he believed the rise in the number of fake stamps could partly be attributed to the cost of living crisis.
“I think people are trying to, if they can, save a bit of money here and there by buying a stamp, perhaps not knowing whether it’s fake or not, and getting it maybe 50p or a pound cheaper buying online. That is certainly going to appeal to some people who are trying to save a little bit of money.”
He also warned that Royal Mail may be having a difficult time identifying fake stamps from their legitimate counterparts – branding the service “inconsistent at times”.
“I’ve heard stories of people who have bought fake stamps unknowingly and sent out their wedding invitations, and the majority of people got charged,” Mr Young explained.
“Yet some got through. There were certainly inconsistencies with Royal Mail’s own security measures on that in that respect.”
Fake stamps are ‘nothing new’
Mr Young said fake stamps are not a new phenomenon, however. “It’s a big scandal now, but fake stamps have been around since the dawn of stamps themselves,” he said.
“There’s always been activities with regards to doing fake stamps, and that’s nothing new.”
Mr Young said recent improvements in fraudulent technology had meant there had been an increase in fake stamps over the past two decades.
“Now that forgers have access to almost the same print technology as the printers themselves, Royal Mail has got to battle to stay one step ahead of forgers,” he said.
“Even when the Penny Black – the world’s first stamp was issued in 1840 – the design was made very intricate and complicated so that the first real convincing fakes didn’t appear on the market in the hands of collectors until, say, 15, 20 years later.”
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