Certificate

Certificates are documents that state whether a stamp or set of stamps or cover is genuine or not, sound or not, or identifying an error or variety. They are issued by experts or expert groups.

This is a different thing from a dealer guarantee, which may not include a photo. The dealer guarantee only promises a refund of the item in question is found to be forged or altered.

Today, photo certificates are used to confirm that the stamp in front of you is the stamp noted in the certificate. But you do have to look. They bear the expert signatures and a statement describing the item in question. While a photo certificate today is the best guarantee of genuineness, it must be remembered that what the certificate provides is in the end an opinion only.

See

 * Expertizing





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