Forged Russian cinderellas
It used to be that one could buy non-postal charity and propaganda labels without too much worry that they may not be genuine. But now that demand and
prices on Russian cinderellas have risen considerably, fakes have appeared on the internet auction sites. Luckily, they are pretty easy to recognize.
1. They are printed on modern white smooth paper, occasionally on white textured paper, and on modern white card stock. If you're a collector of this
stuff you'll know immediately that something is wrong, because they didn't have paper that looked and felt like that in the old days. 2. The fakes are
produced on a printer, which leaves its tell-tale random dot pattern that's easy to see with even the cheapest magnifying glass. Thus what at first
glance seems to be pink paper (both front and back!) is actually white paper with lots of pink dots. The original cinderellas look nothing like that.
These two identifying characteristics are immediately visible when the purchased items arrive. The trick is to avoid purchasing them in the first
place. The tell tale signs of modern digitally produced forgeries are thin white line at the edges of the stamps where there should be nothing like
that. Those lines can sometimes be seen if one looks for them on the auction lot photos. Illustrations are provided here.
     
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