Japan Philately

[Philatarium]

Dec 30, 2014 19:54:51 GMT -5 darkormex said:

isjp.org/

I'll elaborate a bit and say that this link is for the International Society of Japanese Philately, based in the US.  They produce an outstanding publication (now usually in full color) issued quarterly, for the modest membership sum of US $16.

(And if any reader of this board happens to be in Southern California, there is a burgeoning Southern California chapter with real in-person interaction.  Meetings rotate throughout Southern California, usually (but not always) in Los Angeles or Orange Counties.   You do not need to be a member of the main ISJP organization in order to come to the meetings or join the chapter.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or if you're interested.)

www.isjp.org

[Philatarium]

It's also worth noting that there is an introduction to identifying Japanese forgeries (a huge problem with the early issues) on a sub-board of the ISJP website:

japan-stamp-forgeries.org/expert/index.html

It takes a little bit to figure out how to use it, but once you do, has a lot of valuable information. You won't be able to prove conclusively that an early stamp is genuine, but it'll help you determine if it's one of the easy-to-identify forgeries. (There are also some harder-to-identify forgeries that require additional reference materials.)