'Some counterfeit stamps are very sophisticated and they can easily deceive the general public,' stamp expert Oscar Young said
“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 “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.
“You get a slight square edge to the end of them, whereas on the forgeries they’re actually quite spiky.”Among the other introductions in 2022 to clamp down on counterfeits, Royal Mail started printing each stamp with two distinct security ovals. 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.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.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.
“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.