[Audrius]

The Lithuania Philatelic Society is considering offering stamp authentication and certification service for all it's members. Collector feedback is sought to develop ideas and policies that will better serve our community.

What are your stamp expertizing needs? What would work best for you?

[albump]

If someone is willing to offer those services, I think it's a great idea, and could be much easier to use than APS. My personal needs are for piece of mind before I buy something, especially on ebay. In another thread on Memel, members have submitted scans of questioned material and that would work well for me personally before I drop a significant amount of money.

[Audrius]

The Lithuania Philatelic Society is now offering stamp authentication and certification service for all it’s members. The LPS Expertizing Service is a FREE service to the LPS members. There is a fee for issuing printed certificates.

For more information visit: http://lithuanianphilately.com/lps/expertizing/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[qatarstamps]

I think it's a great idea that the society is expertising stamps and issuing certificates. One thing has been on my mind. I see that you want to mark the stamps 'fake' if you decide they are fake. What would be the policy, let's say I win something in auction and put it on extension then send it to the society for a certificate, and it turns out to be fake and the auction will not accept it if it's marked on the back as 'fake'?

[vitg]

What would be the policy, let's say I win something in auction and put it on extension then send it to the society for a certificate, and it turns out to be fake and the auction will not accept it if it's marked on the back as 'fake'?

That's a very good question! There are a lot of forgeries out there which have previously been expertized as genuine by renowned experts in the field and later turned out to be fakes. This complicates matters even more... Most auctioneers will not accept returns of the previously expertized items even if they are not marked as "FORGERY" on the back by LPS.
In the past what I have done was discuss with the auctionhouse first if they would accept an opinion of a particular expert who I wanted to use... If they did not - I asked who would they be comfortable with... But if a fake has Krischke's certificate, I am afraid you are stuck

[qatarstamps]

I understand if the stamp has a certificate it will be very hard unless there was a pre-agreement to get a new certificate from another expert. But my concern is not stamps that have a certificate at this moment. Say an auction company tells me I can send it to the LPS and they will accept your certificate, but at the same time they tell me if it's fake, if you mark the back of the stamp I will not get my money back. What would be your policy on marking the backs in this type of situation?

The LPS did a very good job with Cherrystone with the Klein fakes that went through.

[vitg]

The arrangement with the auctionhouse should always include an option of returning the forgery backstamped as such. If the auctionhouse refuses to agree to this provision - they have to offer their customers names of specific experts to go to (who they trust or who would not mark forgeries as such). In general, most German auctionhouses trust BPP experts and would accept "FORGERY" mark from a BPP expert.
If auctionhouse does not agree to accept the forgeries back and does not offer you alternatives - my suggestion is not to buy anything from them

[Sergey111]

Hello! If examination is free. Please help me figure out what s red penny on the postage stamp? Red penny with Malta Cross # 3 and number 7 (it can t be). Unfortunately, the photo from the yula is not inserted, but who can help, write to me, please.
thank you for your help!

[vitg]

Hi Sergey,

On this site we try to discuss evaluation, expertization and authentication of Lithuanian stamps only and everything else related to Lithuanian philately.

Hope this helps.

VG