New Member: Forgeries, Mauritius and Waterbury Cancellations

Hi

I have been collecting stamps for just over a year having started after listening to a BBC4 documentary about the most famous stamp.

My main areas of interest are around forgeries and in particular I like Sperati but like to collector other good and bad ones and collect also the respective real stamp.

I also have a bit of a love for early Mauritius stamps and of course respective forgeries.

Lately after reading a book about Waterbury cancellation history I have got interested in these currently I only own about 4 covers but one is displayed in the Rohloff book which was a great find.

Not sure what area I will end up collecting next but for me the history is a huge factor rather than filling a stamp book which is probably not the same as most people on here (I could be wrong as I don’t actually know any other stamp collectors).

Before collecting these I spent the last 5 years creating a very extensive antique lock and key collection which I still collect today but only have a few very rare keys that aren’t in my collection - again I love the history behind the keys and how they were used, changed and were picked over time.

One of the reason I wanted to join here was to query Mauritius reprints where I want to find out how to spot fakes and if there were any other reprints when the plate resurface in 1930 other than the 1912.

Thanks