I bought some lots on Delcampe that I thought looked promising. One item is this block of four.
Here is the image the seller put on Delcampe.
What do you think? I was in a hurry and made a bet, looking forward to study the cancel. After receiving and washing the item I made this scan.
I did not like what I saw anymore. The dark black cancel fragment at the bottom looks fake and the ink of the overprints is looking odd. The gray cancel is not readable.
I high resolution scan (2400 dpi) provided more insight.
This definitely looks wrong. I think this is a digital copy of an overprint. Compare the four overprints. They look absolutely identical. I guess I need to check more carefully before I bet.
Relatively cheap microscopes are now available which enable resolution (without oil immersion techniques) high enough to distinguish the ‘dots’ of digital overprints on mint and used stamps. The old adage, “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is not true” should be born in mind by all stamp collectors. Most dangerous for collectors are the double impressions where a genuine stamp or block is scanned and then printed directly onto the stamp or block with a slight shift. Early forgeries of this type were fairly easy to spot but the forgers are getting more skilled and have better high resolution printers.
The grey cancel reads “KRASNOE …” and that is not a known Armenian cancellation but could be one of several Russian cancellations. It is dated 1919 when you would expect a 1920 cancel for a rouble surcharge. The fake cancel at the bottom may be there to obscure the month in the 1919 cancel
The forger in his ignorance has digitally copied a common forgery not a genuine type