Postal Inspectors Stamp Out Counterfeits

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The following images appeared as part of an article in the November, 2000 issue of The United States Specialist. Recent back issues of The Specialist may be ordered from the Executive Secretary for $2 per copy. Send orders to:

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A report on this article appeared in the December 4, 2000 issue of Stamp Collector newspaper.

Postal Inspectors Stamp Out Counterfeits

By Postal Inspector Patricia Peters
Revenue Investigations, Midwest Division, Milwaukee Field Office

This article appeared in the Bulletin of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, December, 1999. This fascinating story details the production of a modern postal counterfeit.

The 1995 46¢ Ruth Benedict definitive stamp, Scott 2938, found counterfeited.

Postmaster Leibfried said Jack Bastian had been buying large quantities of 46¢ stamps daily -- but suddenly stopped, leaving her with an overstock and no good explanation for the change.

Inspector Peters ran a specialized UV light source over the suspect stamps, but found no taggant.

Postal inspectors who searched Bastian's curbside trash found torn shreds of the Ruth Benedict stamps -- all missing taggants.

Editor's note: The foregoing article states that counterfeiter Bastian admitted to placing 9,528 copies of the counterfeit 46¢ stamps into the mail. With that large number of stamps put into circulation, a few of them should have survived. Do any of our readers have any of the large mailing envelopes described in this article? Check your covers and cancelled stamps. The counterfeits should be easy to spot: They are not tagged and they are not intaglio printed, and the shade of red of the stamps isn't quite right, since that was the characteristics first spotted by the postal clerk in Phoenix. These characteristics should be enough to identify the counterfeits. Anyone finding an example of these counterfeits is encouraged to contact the Editor for a future article in The Specialist to document the discovery.

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