do people counterfit postage stamps? If so, then what should one look for in the stamp? Us stamps?

Answer 1

Other than stamps counterfeited to increase values, like old stamps made to sell at auctions, people also print stamps.

Printed stamps are not allways real, websites like stamps.com have real stamps, but others don't and will steal your money. Look for a black and white blob, like when a TV loses a channel's signal. These are real printed stamps. use your mind to tell real from fake.

Answer 2

Good question. It can be hard to tell fake stamps from real ones, since newer stamps are surface printed rather than being engraved like paper money is and older stamps were. One difference is that modern real US stamps (except the very low values) are coated with a substance that makes the stamp (or parts of it) glow in UV light. This is to help the sorting/facing/canceling machines "find" the stamp to cancel it, and it's called "tagging." The machines may reject counterfeit stamps because they lack tagging.

Answer 3

I am not a stamp collector but a coin collector. It seems to me that counterfeiting of coin and stamps must be close. I bet there are lots more counterfeit coins than stamps. Regular stamps most people buy at the post office. Now when it come to rare stamps as rare coins, both must be bought from a reputable dealer who guaranties it authenticity. In recent years at least when it come to coins being worth ten dollars or so the Chinese are counterfeiting them and not doing a good job at that. It is best to know the seller or check with some one that knows their stuff.