eddysstampresort

STAMP SENTINEL

A page committed to the struggle against ILLEGAL AND COUNTERFEIT Stamps produce world wide.

                                  http://www.pwmo.org/Illegals/WADP-WNS-Ballance-Sheet.htm

THE MENACE OF ILLEGAL AND ABUSIVE POSTAGE STAMPS ON PHILATELIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 

The UPU's numbering system for postage stamps, WNS, on the Internet (Press release of the UPU)

(Berne, 1 October 2002)

The UPU’s World Association for the Development of Philately (WADP) has just published its numbering system (WNS) on the Internet.  The WNS website, which is freely available in English and French, can be found through the UPU’s website, www.upu.int (via the Philately page) or by going direct to the site at www.wnsstamps.ch.

Nine months after its launch on 1 January 2002, more than 100 postal administrations have signed up to the WADP’s stamp numbering system. The initiative aims to protect the interests not only of stamp issuing authorities but also of the philatelic market as a whole. Hence the full support given by all the member organisations of the WADP.

The numbering system applies to all postage stamps issued since 1 January 2002 by the stamp issuing authorities of the UPU member countries and their territories and dependencies that are affiliated with WNS. A unique WNS number (comprising the ISO 3166 alpha-2 country code, a serial number and the year of issue) is assigned to every postage stamp.  A stamp bearing the same design and denomination, whether produced in one or more formats (ie sheet, sheetlet, block, booklet, coil, self-adhesive sheet or roll, souvenir or commemorative sheet etc.) will be regarded as one stamp and will therefore have one WNS number. The scanned stamp, along with its relevant technical data (perforation, format, theme, etc.) is published in English and French on the WNS website.

The website therefore offers a centralized international registry that can be used as a powerful research tool by Posts, catalogue publishers, the specialist press and philatelists to check a member administration's stamps or research a particular theme. It should however be borne in mind that, while participation in the WNS is highly recommended, it is voluntary and stamps issued by a UPU administration that has yet to sign up to the System must not be assumed to be irregular or illegal. A drawback for those administrations that have not yet signed up is simply that their stamp issues will be absent from the WNS website, meaning a lost promotional opportunity, and possibly missing out on potential sales.

    The Philatelic Webmasters Organization (PWO), a non-profit organization located in Switzerland, that counts at time over 350 members from all continents, was created in order to promote, support and develop philately through philatelic webmastering.

    The World Association for the Development of Philately (WADP) started in 1996 an action against the producing and the selling of the Illegal Stamps. The Illegal Stamps were defined by the General Assembly of the WADP, in its second meeting (6^th of Oct. 2000), as: Illegal issues for territories which are not entitled to issue stamps and false stamps produced by fraudsters in the name of an issuing authority with the intent to defraud collectors.

    The Universal Postal Union, a member of the UN and of the WADP, is the organization that coordinates the fight against the illegal stamps. Consequently, it has published since 1996 an growing number of Circulars in which the postal administrations members of the UPU have denounced stamps that were illegally issued in their name or in the name of their territorial units.

   In the last years the philatelic business has considerably grown throughout the Internet. Some unethical sites and dealers, and sometimes uninformed sellers use the Internet to defraud the stamp collectors, by proposing for sale illegal stamps. The first victims are mostly the beginners in our nice hobby. Being mostly active on the Web, we created this subsite to allow for a better understanding of illegal stamps and to inform how to recognize and to avoid them. We can be easily reached by e-mail (please click here to send us a message - take out spaam form the e-mail address please).

    Developed by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the World Association for the Development of Philately (WADP), a WADP Numbering System (WNS) was introduced on 1 January 2002 with the aim of creating a database of all authentic postage stamps issued by UPU member countries and territories on or after that date.

    The PWO tightly collaborated from its very beginnings with the Universal Postal Union in the fight against illegal stamps. For this reason as well information about illegal issues as the UPU Circulars were published on a regular basis on the PWO site. The PWO, in direct concern with the International Bureau of the UPU in Bern, has dedicated the present subsite to the fight of illegal stamps.

    Because In the middle of the year 2003 the UPU started by publishing the UPU Circulars referring to illegal stamps on its own site, we didn't publish them on this site anymore, and we limited ourselves to provide (in the menu) links to the pages where they could be found. Unfortunately, these links get broken in the middle of the year 2009, this after the UPU site was redesigned. On 08/04/2010 we were assured by WNS (on which site the links are broken too) that access to the Circulars will be restarted toward the end of the month of August 2010.

Sites Showing/Selling Illegal Stamps

    A certain number of illegal stamps which are the subject of IB Circulars, distributed by the UPU at the request of its member countries, could and can still be found on the Internet sites listed below. We strongly advise all collectors to be wary of such "so-called stamps" and to double-check the authenticity of whatever they see on these sites.

• Delcampe.com , Belgium

• Marlen Stamp & Coin Ltd., NY, USA

• Europhila Stamp Ltd., P.O. Box 1099, 3042 Kaunas, Lithuania, tel (+370-7)-2598-04. Source UPU.

• BiStamp, a Belarus stamp company

Dealers Selling Illegal Stamps on eBay

Unfortunately, some dealers and collectors put up illegal stamps for auction on eBay and Delcampe to be sold to unsuspecting people. We remind that the eBay rules assert that sellers assume all responsibility for listing their items. For this reason we warmly  recommend to all dealers to check out on this site for the legality of their philatelic items before offering them for sale. We also suggest to all potential buyers to use the information provided on this site before bidding for contemporary stamps. 

The following sellers either were contacted by the Philatelic Web Watch or its readers, and they declined to answer or  to withdraw their offers or they have systematically offered illegal samps:

• gambori, Location: California. Country: USA. Proposed illegals from: Russian Federation

• excollectibles. Location: Manchester NH. Country: USA. Proposed illegals from: Angola. Also newer from Comoros.

• lbphilatel. Wilmington, USA. Proposed illegals from: Angola.

• pantonisse. Uden, Netherlands. Proposed illegals from: Rwanda.

• henny48. Hong Kong. Illegals from Comoros.

• ltsung, Ontario, Canada. Illegals from Niger, etc.

The readers are invited to send directly to the dealers that are selling illegal stamps an e-mail with the following contents:

Your  following ... lot(s) offer stamps ostensibly issued by XXXX (country name) but which, according to the International Bureau Circular number YYY of Month, Year, were produced without the authority of the Postal administration of XXXX. According to the UPU these are illegal stamps. We recommend you, in the interest of philately, to abstain in the future from this kind of activity, and we will inform the Philatelic Web Watch about eventual  future relapses.

Please send each time a CC e-mail  to us (remove "spaam"), and let us know in about a week if the dealer hasn't complied with the recommendations of the UPU.

NOTES

1. The sites listed here will be deleted from the list only when the owners/publishers will give concrete proofs that they have changed their policies in the domain of illegal stamps. 
    
2. The PWO is determined to fight this plague that gnaws at philately. The PWO is representing here the wishes and hopes of hundreds of thousands of stamp collectors worldwide, and for this reason, any attempt to divert the PWO of this way is useless and will be reported on the PWO site.
    
3. Please consider that we can only process denunciations that refer to illegal stamps, i.e. only to those listed as such by the UPU.
    
4. Some philatelists have decided to put images of illegals on their sites, in order to fight against them. The PWO, following the position of the UPU,  finds that this isn't a good idea  (please see here for reasons) and consequently won't show images of illegals on its subsite.

Some reactions from sellers to whom we explained in personal e-mails why should they abstain in the future from such a doubtful commercial activity and from readers: 

• "These "stamps" are being sold as collectibles not as postage stamps and I will report you to eBay for monitoring my auctions. Thank you. Mike H." Please click here for an explanation why such stamps aren't collectibles, but just illegals. Phil. Web Watch.
   
• "Hi, I ended the auction and will refrain myself from posting it again in the future. You can remove my name from your site now, please. Thanks, X.Y." Thanks, X.Y., for your wise decision. PWW. 
   
• Hello, Answering your message, I inform you that I had removed from my auctions all my series of stamps of Angola. As I keep the history of all my bids, I contacted the 6 buyers who had already bought from me such stamps. I proposed them a refund of their money  on the other purchases. Thanks for having warned me that these stamps were illegal. Very cordially, Jean-Marie.
   
• I want to commend you for contacting "excollectibles" who sells illegal stamps on Ebay. I like the way he threatened you for monitoring his auctions! Please let me know what I can do to assist you. Erica.

From the Iinternational Bureau of the Universal Postal Union (Sept. 18, 2002)

I would like to this opportunity to express again our gratitude to the PWO for the assistance you are providing the UPU in watching out for the sellers of illegal stamps.

Maria S. Libera
Programme Manager, Markets Development
Directorate of Communications and Markets
International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union