Official postage stamps are produced by a post administration of a corresponding country or by an authorized representative (agent). Agents without a contract with a post administration or transgressing this contract cannot produce legal postage stamps.

Only official stamps cover the costs of postage services. A philatelic agent and a post administration together decide on themes, designs, denomination, release date, edition and other important stages in stamp production. Philatelic agent ensures high quality of its produced stamps.

Illegal stamps are a huge problem for official philatelic agents, retailers and stamp collectors as they cause much harm to all of them. It is necessary to cooperate in order to ensure fair trade and legal production of postage stamps.

The descriptions and lists of legal stamp issues can be found in the official websites and stamp catalogues of the authorized philatelic agents such as Scott (USA), Yvert and Tellier (France), Michel (Germany) and many philatelic periodicals.

Fake stamps ≠ illegal stamps.

Illegal stamps are also frequently called “bogus stamps” or “unofficial stamps”. “Cinderella stamps” or “phantasy stamps” are less correct but still popular synonyms. “Illegal stamps” and “fake stamps” are not synonyms as they have different meanings.

Fake stamps (or counterfeit stamps) are illegal copies of official stamps. Production of counterfeit stamps is a criminal offence in a lot of countries. A person who wants to produce fake stamps would try to get the originals or the files from which they were produced and make very similar copies of legal postage stamps.

Illegal stamps are private newly produced labels that are similar to official stamps by their forms, paper and other essential features but their producer does not have a contract with a post administration whose name he/she is using.

The activity of producing illegal stamps breaches the rights of a concerned post administration and causes financial loss for retailers, official philatelic agents and stamp collectors (when the collector is not informed about the real status of the stamps). To ensure fair philatelic trade it is essential to solve this issue together.