Curiosity Corner #324: The Swiss ~ Offset Upset.
 

1984
A Forgery Upsets the Swiss

Forgeries to the detriment of Postal Administrations are becoming
more numerous lately, and very dangerous. You will have read that
Italy had to scrap its set of definitives showing the Coin of Syracuse,
and replace it with a new set of definitives depicting castles of Italy.
The reason was the appearance of very dangerous forgeries of various
values of the Coin of Syracuse set produced in large quantities to
defraud the Italian Post Office. The United States have had
frequently, trouble with forged stamps produced en masse and sold at
cut price to large firms. Recently it was West Germany, where
forgeries of the definitives for stamp machines turned up.
Now it is the turn of Switzerland, and the philatelic press is giving
the recent discovery of a foregery of a Swiss stamp full coverage.
Last October the publishers of the well known Zumstein catalogue
were shown a letter bearing a 40 Centimes stamp of the 1977-1979
set depicting various folk customs. This cover was posted at "6285
HITZKIRCH" on October 17, 1983. A detailed examination of the
stamp on the cover proved beyond any doubt that this was a very
dangerous forgery. Let me now give you the typical marks to how
this forgery can be distinguished from the genuine stamp:

http://cjoint.com/data/fqd21XP4iW.htm
(genuine stamp)

First of all the paper of the stamp is very white and has no phosphor
coating. The perforation of the genuine stamp is comb perforation
11.75, whereas the forgery has a line performation of about 11.25.
Whilst the difference between 11.75 and 11.25 is only very small,
the fact that the forgery is line perforated means that the corners of
the forgery are irregular. The colour of the stamp is very good and
close to the genuine item, but the forgery was not printed by recess
printing as the original, but in offset. Therefore it does not have the
"rough" surface feeling.
The simplest way, though, to recognise the forgery is to study closely
the letters of the country name HELVETIA at the left. In the genuine
stamp the printing of the individual letters of the word HELVETIA is
formed of criss-cross lines, but the letters of the forgery have an even
full surface. In addition, if you look at the top feather on the hat of
the figure in the foreground, this is quite clear and well defined in the
genuine stamp, whereas in the forgery it is very faint.
Switzerland has had a very long rest from forgeries to the detriment
of the Post Office. "Berner Briefmarken Zeitung" writing about the
forgery, have dug up an official magazine of the Swiss Post Office
dated December 6, 1919 reporting the discovery of printing
equipment in Geneva, that had been used for the production of forged
25 Centimes stamps. That was almost 65 years ago!
We are showing here a pair of the 40 Centimes stamp, but these
stamps are genuine copies. 1 am sure specialized
collectors will be on the look-out for the forgery. God alone knows
how many were produced and how many copies slipped through the
posts. On cover they should be very interesting and should fetch a
good price.

(So get busy and search those duplicates!..... Rod. :)

Acknowledgement:
Mr. Otto Hornung.
The Australian Stamp Monthly, April, 1984