US Modern Stamps: General

Not sure this is the right thread for this but this was in a recent issue of National Geographic. A woman was posted through the mail using stamps on her helmet.

The U.S. Post Office Department launched airmail service in 1918. In
 this photo taken a year later, employees deliver a woman who traveled

as cargo to San Diego, California. Later regulations prohibited sending
 people through the mail.




Photograph by Underwood Archives, Getty

Came across this last night as I was sorting through an accumulation of used US looking for plate number singles.

Mr. H.....As stated previously (now deleted) a nice mis-cut !

Today I received an album with US stamps and the following cover







and content







and many stamps, for example







I like these sheets and stamps very much!

Now there is a lot to do

cara

Recently received this copy of Scott 5295 ($1 green and gold (the denomination), self-adhesive) postmarked at the North Texas Processing and Distribution Center in Dallas, Texas on August 5, 2021. The stamp, and its $2 and $5 counterparts, were printed by Banknote Corporation of America and issued in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania on June 27, 2018.

Perhaps a misread AFSM, not AESM.

I like the thinking Peter(@brightonpete ); but having re-read my own article, I have to agree with both Jeff(@JeffS ) & Steve(@tomiseksj )

Below are all four of the Scott listed varieties of the 2019 U.S. Flag stamp, 5342 to 5345. These are still pretty common on incoming mail and I have a pile of them on my desk right now that will need to be removed from paper including a plate number single.

As you can see in the scan below the sky in the background is pretty uniformly blue or shades of blue with white clouds on the right behind the flag.



But then, in yesterday's mail, I received an item I purchased from in eBay seller in California with this example of the above flag. This is Sc. no. 5343, the same as the 2nd stamp from the left in the above image, however, it is not blue, it is purple.



When scanned and uploaded here the color difference is less distinct but to my eyes the difference is plain in the light of my office.  Below is the same stamp, cut out from the envelope and placed side by side with another Sc. 5343 on the left. You can also see a distinct granular, rough around the edges pattern in the stamp image on the right as compared to the stamp on the left.



So what am I looking at here? A less than good quality printing from the printer? The tell should be the micro-printed USPS to the right of the 5th red stripe which can be clearly seen on the stamp on the left but cannot be read on the stamp on the right. Am I looking at a forgery?

Thoughts? Comments?

Hello darkormex,
 I've seen forgeries mentioned a few times recently on the Forum and it has me wondering about them. The stamps in your recent post are from 2019. I ask in complete naivete, are there people actually trying to forge US stamps at this time? I find it hard to wrap my brain around anyone going to the incredible trouble and risk to produce low value stamps. With the ability to buy postage below face on an eBay auction any day of the week, why would anyone create forgeries these days? I must be missing something which would be easy as I don't collect anything after the early 50s where my familiarity ends.

Rob

.

This has become increasingly common. Here is an article from Linn’s Stamp News discussing this in regard to another recent issue.

Quality of US counterfeit stamps keeps improving