Modern Counterfeit Stamps

[coastwatcher]

It seems as though the counterfeiting of modern stamps for use as postage is becoming somewhat of a plague. Here is an article from the January 10, 2022 issue of Linn’s, entitled Postal Inspection Service Warns About Proliferation of Counterfeit Stamps. Also, here’s another article, from the November 28, 2021 issue of the Elyria, Ohio Chronicle-Telegram, entitled Buyer Beware: Counterfeit Stamp Sales Expand. In it, a woman tells of her experience buying counterfeit stamps online. After she became suspicious, she actually took them to 3 different post offices and was told by a clerk at each one that they were okay. It’s no wonder that the USPS is loosing money! 

[khj]

I wouldn't complain about those clerks. I had a problem with a clerk at one of my local post offices who insisted that some of the stamps I was using weren't valid.

I remember another forum member (just don't remember who), had a run-in with his local post office who insisted some of the "sticker" stamps he used weren't real US stamps.

You almost have to use counterfeit stamps in order to get the post office to recognize it as postage sometimes!

[Cephus]

And they wonder why people don't want to use stamps anymore.

[I.M. DeBear]

I had trouble with quartered panes of USA #2438, the Classic Mail pane/4 imperforate .25c stamps with text in margin. After my PO clerk showed me one of my covers marked 'Postage Due', and told me the stamps weren't valid because they were cut from a magazine (as evidenced by attached marginal text), I recommended she either have me arrested, or call Downtown (Detroit Main P.O.) I took it on myself to go down and visit a Postal Inspector, and invited her to check the Postal Bulletins (new issue announcements). She told me they throw those in a drawer somewhere instead of in the binder that they were pre-punched for, and that I should just stop using the stamps. She took my suggestion to call downstairs to the Philatelic Window where I had purchased them, and they told her they had no such stamps. So, I went down to the window and showed them a pane. They sold me a bunch more of the panes, which I took back to the Inspector. She suggested I not use them, so naturally I immediately took them home, quartered them with pinking shears, and dropped covers at every P.O., truck stop, and railroad crossing from here to Grand Rapids and back. Nearly half of those covers came back marked 'Postage Due' (which I didn't end up paying, of course). Written up properly, all those mishandled covers made a really nice display.