Published: 03 September 2026 by Dan Williams
Stamp Articles
At first glance, the colour of this 24p chestnut Machin stamp is convincing. The coarse perforations and weak printing give it away as a 1993 postal forgery based on SG X969.
The forgery is line perforated at about 11, rather than the finer comb perforation of the genuine stamp. The Queen’s portrait and background also lack the usual definition. These differences are easy to see on this unmounted mint example, without a cancellation obscuring the design.
The stamps were commonly sold through convenience stores and newsagents during 1993. An illustrated comparison of the forgery and genuine stamp records used copies appearing on mail from London and Essex during that summer, when 24p was the inland letter rate.
The forgery is associated with the counterfeiting group dubbed the Lavender Hill Mob. Counterfeit postage stamps were a sideline to a much larger banknote operation. Contemporary reporting on the case records that equipment was supplied specifically to perforate the fake stamps, while Fraud Intelligence gives a brief account of the wider operation.
The contrast is part of the interest. The gang’s banknotes were described as highly convincing, while this stamp is easy to identify once the main clues are known.
View this unmounted mint 24p forgery on eBay.
More examples can be found in my guide to Decimal GB Postage Stamp Forgeries, including later Machin and Data Matrix forgeries.