A SPECIAL FEATURE OF PHILATELIC EXPERTS,
a wealth of forgery identification and stamp expertising information.

FORGED FINNISH POSTMARKS

The post office datestamps listed below are considered by Finnish philatelic experts to have been fraudulently used. Nearly all of them are strictly speaking not forged, but genuine cancellers that have been fraudulently used by old-time philatelists etc. They wrongfully obtained improper cancellations by favour or borrowed the devices from unsuspecting post office clerks. In a couple of cases it is presumed that the clerk himself has been too eager a stamp collector.

Generally the abuse is comparatively mild: backdating a date stamp to produce a nice postmark on a postage stamp no longer valid. Typical examples are such 1922–54 Red Cross and commemorative stamps (most valid until end of 1962) that are plentiful mint, but less common beautifully used. The dangerous fakes are the high values (10 and 25 mk 1927 and 1929, 1 mk 1930) of the  type 1917 (Saarinen designed) definitives, which abound in mint condition but are very rare and expensive genuinely used. The last fakes often have a corner cancellation, where no year is visible. About a century ago a famous philatelist (RG) with access to the Finnish postal administration's collections played with a wide variety of obsolete date stamps producing single oddities and curiosities, but he also stamped ordinary postal stationery items on a large scale.

As a whole the magnitude of this problem is not big in the Finnish philately. One rarely needs to doubt a Finnish postmark, but if the used stamp is much more expensive than the mint, or if a pre-1963 cancellation appears to be too fine to be true, then you would certainly be on your guard. This applies, of course, to stamps of any country. The outright stamp and postmark forgeries by Fournier are another matter. At the end of WW2 some of occupied Eastern Carelia's date stamps reportedly came in the wrong hands. Finally, avoid stamps used abnormally late, even though the cancellation was  legitimate and genuine – such stamps are disliked.

The fraudulently used postmarks are known by most Finnish auction houses, but are not necessarily spotted abroad. It must furthermore be kept in mind that the very same date stamps do exist genuinely used too. However, no doubt can exist in cases where the date of the postmark is earlier than when the device was made. As real cancellers were used the date was movable, so fake dates other than those recorded may exist.

A list like the one below cannot be complete, and postmark forgeries produced by photocopying and scanning methods or by hand-painting have deliberately been omitted, as listing those endless fabrications would be of very little help. Try checking the ink of the impression. The numerous different postmarks on the first (1856) issue forgeries are not included – always get a certificate. Forged fancy cancellations are also omitted. Many of the fraudulently used Finnish postmarks are illustrated in the HFF forgery manual with more details on which stamps they have been spotted.

Copyright © 2006–2010 by G. Kock
Forged German postmarks, earlier cases, Commonwealth, worldwide.
More forgery monographs.  Helsingfors Frimärkssamlare Förening.
Contact information here.  Address of this page: www.filatelia.fi/forgeries/finnish_postmarks.html

Väärennettyjä suomalaisia postileimoja

The stamps, on which the postmark fakes have been noticed, are sorted according to four stamp type categories. Dates later than the validity of the stamps are not listing errors. Furthermore, some identical postmarks do belong to two categories.
"p. stat." = only seen on postal stationery. "+Ru" = place name in Russian too. "modern type" = datestamp of the post-WW2 types. "corner" = only part of postmark visible.

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