Western Australia #4 - Forgery?

The watermark on this #4 doesn't look quite right compared to the image shown in Scott's catalog (this one appears to have an eye). Also, the card this came with shows a PF cert number but I couldn't find it in their database lookup. I'm not hopeful but thought maybe an Australia collector would know at a glance. Thanks in advance.

That PF number would be located in the "Early Certificate" section which as you probably know does not even have a way to search for any Western Australia stamps. I would give the PF a call.

Based on personal experience, I wouldn't be relying on a PF cert for classic Australian colonies.

Not my area of expertise by a long way, but the stamp just looks off to me. Purely a gut feel, and more than happy to stand corrected.

I spent a bit of time looking through auction records and Siegel, Cherrystone and Kelleher have all sold certified examples. None of those exhibited the strong color of this example. Not even close. On the other hand I couldn't find much on what the Swan watermark looks like.

Even though the PF may not be preferred for expertizing this type of item I would still contact them to see what that certificate said.

I called PF yesterday and they said that that # wasn't be in their digital database. The person I spoke with said they'd check the paper files they have.

PF has some more recent certs that I thought look reasonable and similar to what I have. Also, I have the digital Klaseboer catalog/database (very good BTW) that shows both genuine and forgeries of this stamp. The forgeries shown on his site are pretty crude. Below are the images of the PF and Klaseboer genuine stamps.





If I hear back from PF I'll report back.