Germany & Colonies Philatelic Society
The year 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the first year of operation of the Germany & Colonies Philatelic Society following the amalgamation of the Germany & Colonies Stamp Club (established 1947) and the Stockton German Study Group (1960).

The G&CPS celebrated its inaugural year in 1964 with the first Germania Posta philatelic exhibition held in Stockton.

Title: Fraudbusting update
Posted By: John Bald (johnbald@talktalk.net)
Posted On: 05/11/2011 at 13:01:14
Message: I had hoped to make a brief presentation of my little microscope at the London meeting on 26th November, but won't now be able to do so because of a medical appointment. So, here is a quick update. The device provides an immediate 20x magnification, combined with strong illumination from LEDs, so that it is better than a magnifying glass. It records a picture on a the computer screen, and you can increase the magnification to 200 by means of a fairly tricky procedure. This allows you to see individual paper fibres and is quite good at detecting regumming. The stamps I'd seen had been regummed over the top of expert marks that I think were probably genuine in themselves, but for hinged stamps. There were also straight lines in the gum from masks used to protect perf tips from respraying. I'd had a careful look with a strongish glass when I bought them, and could not detect any signs of regumming, chiefly because I'd been focusing on perf tips. The dealer has provided me with properly certified stamps to the value of my original purpose, but it was only deciding to send a set from another purchase to Herr Schlegel that made me send some of his stamps for certification. Exactly how much fraud is going on is very hard to detect, but at the moment it feels as if we can't rely on anything. If it is worth regumming a stamp someone will, and anything worth over 20 euros or so is suspect.
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Fraudbusting update John Bald 05/11/2011 13:01:14
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