The greatest sinners in this respect were the officials at Jassy, Roumania, who, in response to numerous applications for copies of the four very rare stamps of July, 1858, caused to be made, at different times, no less than three varying types of the 54, 81, and 108 paras--which they sold as genuine. It was only in the late 'seventies that this official fraud was thoroughly exposed.
As I have indicated, it is impossible, within the limits of a single chapter, to do more than touch the fringe of the subject of forgery and "faking," and the dissection of a few skilful imitations would not materially add to the warning which the previous few pages will have conveyed--that the interest taken by the forger in Philately is a purely mercenary one, detrimental to our scientific hobby and damaging to our pockets; the collector must always be on the defensive and on the look-out for pitfalls, not relying too much on a guarantee of genuineness (which only secures reimbursement of money paid) to prevent the admission into his album of a forgery or clever fake.
The prevalence of forgery--and the almost equally reprehensible "reprinting"--should be no insurmountable obstacle to the collector; rather it should be a spur to prick the sides of his intent to intimate study and patient research. By collecting in a thorough and scientific manner, the collector will so impress on his memory the general features of the majority of the world's issues, together with the details of the safeguards afforded by paper, watermark and perforation, that the first glimpse at a forgery or fake will reveal a something which at once rouses suspicion that the particular label is not the legitimate offspring of the Post Office.
The "bogus" stamp, that is, the fraudulent label which has never existed as an original, is not to be feared: standard catalogues of the present day contain a practically accurate list of the designs of all issued stamps, and information as to new issues is so widely disseminated by the philatelic press that the chances of successfully placing a bogus stamp or issue are very small.
There have been frauds of this kind, but they are so few, and their character is so easily ascertained from the perusal of any catalogue deserving of the name, that it will suffice to merely mention two or three countries which have had bogus issues foisted on them.