The 1924 Airmail Forgery
by Audrius Brazdeikis | Aug 29th, 2009 | Category: stamp forgeries
A complete forgery of the 60 centas value stamp of definitive issue of 1924 exists on unwatermarked paper (Scott C34 unwmk; Michel 222Y; Yvert A36). Upon close inspection of recent stamp auctions (eBay, Aug 2009), we found this forged stamp of Lithuania Air Post issue of 1924 which has a backstamp SANABRIA. The usage of the expert mark “SANABRIA” on forged Lithuania Mi 222Y has not been previously reported. There are a number of distinguishing characteristics of the bogus stamp.
The identifying characteristics of Lithuania Mi 222Y
The key distinguishing characteristics of the Michel 222Y (Scott C34 unwmk) genuine and forged stamp are illustrated below
This is an old “sleepy eye” forgery.
The main characteristic of this forgery (besides the “eye”) has always been a connection between “L” and “I” in “LIETUVA”.