WHY HAVE ITEMS EXPERTIZED?

AND WHY NEED CERTIFICATES?

There are a lot of forged, faked, repaired or altered items on the philatelic market, both recent “productions”, and items that were created many decades ago.   

So when buying or selling rare items it is vital to know:

- Is the stamp genuine or is it a forgery? or is it some later reprint from an original plate?

- Is the overprint on it genuine or forged? 

- If the stamp is rare in mint condition: Was it a used example from which the postmark has been removed? Or even worse a fiscal cancel cleaned off?

- If the stamp is rare imperforate: Was it simply a perf stamp that had perfs trimmed? Or margins added?

- Is the rare perf or rouletting variety genuine? Or was it a imperf stamp that has been altered?

- Is the postmark genuine & contemporary?  Or is it forged or backdated?

-  Is this a nice high denomination stamp? or has a “specimen” overprint being removed?

-If stamp appears mint & never hinged: Is the gum original? or has stamp been regummed?                     Or was it a lightly hinged stamp that has been altered to appear never hinged?

- Is a rare genuine stamp in perfect condition? or does it have any well done repairs such as sealed tears, filled thins, added perfs or margins, filled in punctures, pressed creases etc? or has it been reperforated?

Without professional & competent expertizing, in order to determine the above, one does not know whether one has a valuable rarity, or a worthless forgery.

And even if the item is known to be genuine; there is a huge difference in value between items in perfect condition and those that are faulty or have been repaired.

For both collectors & dealers the benefit of having items expertized when they buy is that they do not spend real money on worthless fakes, or pay high prices for repaired material.

And for collectors it means that when someday they (or their heirs) come to sell they will not get any unpleasant surprises, and will be able to realize sale of the material at market prices. As at auctions items with expert certificates consistently sell for significantly more that similar items without.

While for dealers having material expertized before selling means that their customers will have more confidence in the items on offer. It also avoids unpleasant situations & damage to reputation if customers have to return unexpertized items for refunds that turn out to be not genuine.