Speculative Forgeries
A sad fact of collecting Ukrainian stamps is that there are many forgeries of overprinted stamps and provisionals. I know that I've been stung. The only problem now is determining to what extent.
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"... as much as 75 to 90
percent of the material ... is forged." |
Val Zabijaka from Silver Spring, Maryland, is a collector and part-time dealer in Ukrainian stamps. Every summer, he teaches economics in Ukraine and gets to visit the stamp auctions in Kyiv. Mr. Zabijaka says "probably as much as 75 to 90 percent of the material that is being offered is forged." |
"Why? The explanation is very simple," he says.
According to Zabijaka, it all started when Kyiv overprinted Soviet stamps with tridents. Speculators quickly realized that the value of these Soviet stamps, which previously were worth hardly anything at all, could be increased several-fold by simply applying an overprint.
"A sheet of Soviet stamps was priced at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 Karbovanets in post offices," says Zabijaka. "Since the official overprinted stamps were being bought by foreigners, speculators saw a real possibility of making real (hard currency) money. They went -- probably ran -- to post offices and bought almost all 1-5 kopek sheets. Then they started overprinting by hand, etc. Thus thousands of different "local overprints"appeared on philatelic markets and eventually overseas."
The fact that these local overprints are imitations -- and not forgeries -- of legitimate overprinted Soviet stamps makes them difficult to classify. Technically, a philatelist might also call these stamps "Cinderellas." This is an item that looks like a stamp, but which was never meant for postal use. Zabijaka uses the term "speculative forgery," and I think it is more descriptive. These stamps were created to make money for some entrepreneurs in Ukraine and overseas.
I frequently see these for sale at stamp shows and online auctions. The standard dislaimer seems to be "not listed in Scott's." Unfortunately, a lot of good provisional stamps are not listed in Scott's Catalog, either.
