Study of Philatelic Forgeries of Iran
One of the most challenging aspect of philately in general is to distinguish and identify the forgeries. The term "Forgery" in philately purely refers to the stamps or overprints made from the fake or imitation of original clichés or handstamps. Forgery in philately was not necessarily meant to defraud the collectors alone, but as we have seen, during the World War II, both allies and axis printed forgeries as propaganda means to discredit their foes. Another purpose of forgeries, which to this date exist, is to defraud the post office. We must not forget that postage stamps are as valuable as banknotes. In addition to forgeries we have to deal with reprints. Reprints are stamps made at a later date by the use of the original cliches.
The reprints can be further divided into two groups: Reprints made by the order of the government and reprints made without the governmental authorization.
The Iranian philately is no exception from the foregoing subjects and in certain periods the presence of forgeries as well as authorized and unauthorized reprints have caused quite an impact on the market values. As an effort to educate the public and to promote the Iranian philately, we will try to discuss and update information on the forgeries and reprints. With more knowledge, more collectors will feel at ease to join the vast number of those who have enjoyed collecting the Iranian stamps and postal history.
Iranian stamps and postal history are among the most beautiful and definitely interesting philatelic fields in the world. In order to study the Iranian philately, we must first divide it into three categories of Original issues, Reprints, and Forgeries
Original issues and reprints will be discussed separately. Here we focus on the forgeries.
List of some of the fakes & forgeries: (The list is under construction & will be updated shortly)
- c.1870-78 Lion issues (which are discussed in detail in the Lions of Iran book).
- 1876 First Portrait ssue Forgeries
- 1879-80 Second portrait Issue Forgeries
- 1881 Lithographed Forgeries
- 1881-82 Recess issues Forgeries
- 1902 Meched provisional issue.
- 1902 Tehran typeset issues
- Zinc plate issues of 1919, 1924, 1925 issues
- 1928 small format Airpost stamps