DUBAI FORGERIES

This area is under construction and I will be adding more text and illustrations in the next few weeks. Page created on May 24, 2003

FORGERIES CREATED YEARS AFTER THE ISSUANCE OF THE STAMPS

Close to forty years after the issuance of the stamps under the Broody contract, many new varieties of errors began to appear on the market, largely through the Internet and the eBay Auction site. I was astounded to find a flood of varieties/errors that I had not encountered in my twenty-some years of collecting and cataloging this material.

Two Middle Eastern dealers, one from Syria and one from Lebanon, purchased numerous Dubai items from the late Mr. Michael Stephen, and later from his widow. They both paid high prices for the material and began to offer them on eBay.

Both individuals are honorable men and knew of my efforts in compiling a catalog and were familiar with my website illustrating Dubai material. We were able to work out an agreement and I was able to obtain copies of these items for my collection.

The first, and largest, group of items were cataloged and promptly forgotten for about a year. About a year later when newer items appeared I dug into my collection to compare these items to see what I was missing. It was at time that I began to carefully examine the material and realized that they were 100% forgeries.

The printing is done by a different method and is not as clear as the original stamps. Some of the images are scattered with tiny dots of blue, black and whatever the color of the main image being printed. These forged printings are done on genuine stamps to create the "errors". The images are printed on either the front of the stamp, or on the reverse to simulate an offset.

I have since learned that these were all done by Mr. Stephan who did not want to release them for years as he did not want to have any legal problems. Mr. Stephan was known for years as a dealer in forged overprints on many Middle Eastern stamps and other suspect material. His reputation was such that numerous auction houses would not accept consignments from him.

Since he held the first contract with the sheikhdom of Dubai, these items are part of that history, although, not the "official" postal history. His fakes are only found on the issues he was responsible for when he held the contract with the Government of Dubai and a few different designs that were never approved by the Government (and possibly even created years after the contract), nor released to the market until recently.

To date, the material has been found for the following issues, but more will be added later:

First Definitives

First Dues

1964 Scouts

Honoring Astronauts

Scout Aerogrammes

Aerogrammes with the Second Definitive images

FIRST DEFINITIVES

The 2np stamp of the first definitive set has an offset on the back of a genuine stamp. This offset is a forgery and was printed by a different printing method. It is not as clear and defined as the genuine.
The 20np stamp on the right has a double frame. The second frame is a forgery and was printed on a genuine stamp. The printing is also less defined.

Forged double frames, double center and offsets on First Definitive stamps. The center image of a crab is an offset on the back of a 30np genuine stamp.

The additional frame is a forgery. It is very obvious when you examine the image to the right. Even the color is not quite the same.

FIRST POSTAGE DUES

Forged double frames and offsets on perforated Postage Due stamps.

The above block of four stamps is a later created forgery. The double overprint of the Sheikh's head was done with a hand printing press and the individual lines that were printed can be seen in the larger image on the right. I had originally thought they were done with a computer but I was wrong. The forged "doubling" was printed over a genuine block of stamps. A quick glance at the stamps tells you something is wrong as the gray of the face is missing. These have recently begun to appear on the market.

Forged essays on cardstock. They exist with a black image and one in colors similar to the genuine issued stamp. The card measure 148mm x 98mm. The image to the right is a blowup of the colored card. It is also the image on the forged 10R Postal Card/Air Letter.

This "postal card", printed on card stock, was another creation of Mr. Stephan. There was absolutely no use for a 10 Riyal postal card and the highest genuine rate for a postal card was under one riyal.
The colors on the card are brighter and somewhat harsher, compared to the same issued 10R stamp.
This was a later creation and was printed by a different printing method. The background was taken from the aerogramme design but pinted in green, rather than the issued blue. It is also called an "Air Letter".
None of the genuine issued postal cards, nor aerogrammes, had this variety of "SPECIMEN printed on them. The only "genuine" SPECIMEN found on them was done with a rubber stamp with the word in both Arabic and English. See other web page for examples of it.

1964 SCOUTS

Double impression of the center of the 30np Scout stamp. The second impressions is a forgery.
In the close up view of part of the stamp is can be seen that the center is not as clear. This is because it was printed by a different printing method. The color is also a slightly different shade.

Double impression of the center of the 5np Scout stamp. The second printing is a forgery and is not a clearly defined as the original. This is not the result of less ink on the plate.

Fake double centers

Forged frame printed on gum side of stamp. This is the image used to create the double frame stamp listed below.

Forged centers printed as offsets on the reverse of the correct stamps. Illustrated here are the 1np, 2np, 3np, 5np, 20np, 30np and 40np stamps.

Double frames (one forged) on the 1np, 2np, 3np, and 40np values.

HONORING ASTRONAUTS

The offset on the left stamp is on the reverse of a genuine 1 1/2R stamp. The center and right stamp have a forged double spacecraft printed over a genuine stamp. Under a good magnifying glass it is possible to see what poor quality the forged printing is. To the naked eye, it looks genuine.

Dubai

Homepage