February 2018 - Sneak Peek

EXPERTIZING
.........................................................................................................
BY TOM HORN authentication department director
twhorn@stamps.org
The Basics: How to Use Expertizing Service
Society’s Expertizers Issue About 4,500 Certificates Per Year
The American Philatelic Society Expert Service, known
also as APEX, issues 4,500 certificates a year that offer
opinions on the genuineness of philatelic material at a
moderate cost. You might be surprised to learn that the APS
has issued certificates since 1903; an authentication service
was one of the original reasons for the formation of the society
in 1886.
Send the form and item to APEX. How you send it is up
to your tolerance for risk or your stamp insurance policy for
coverage. We take care of it when it is in our system. An image
of the item is scanned and saved when the envelope is
opened and a certification number is assigned. If you include
a self-addressed envelope with postage, we send you an acknowledgement
with the certification number.
A standard APEX application.
Today, APEX utilizes the services of more than 135 specialists
and a variety of high-tech equipment to provide guaranteed
opinions on stamps and other philatelic items in about
175 areas, including dead countries.
But what do you know about this service as it is offered
today? For one thing, it really isn’t complicated. Here are the
basics:
To use our service, you obtain an expert submission
form. You can receive these with a direct request from the
APS or pick them up at our big shows, such as StampShow or
AmeriStamp Expo. Those who need just one form can visit
www.stamps.org/Stamp-Authentication to print a form. You
need to submit every item with a separate form.
Tell us on the form what you want to know about the item
and include the country, catalog number and value and your
contact information. A mount is included for securely attaching
the item to the form.
The final dual-signed APEX certificate for U.S.
Scott 1056.
If we can expertize the item here at our main office, we
do that. If not, the item is placed with others to be sent to an
appropriate expert. When the expert returns the item with an
opinion, we enter the details into the APEX record for that
specific item.
The certificate is then printed, embossed with the APEX
seal and signed by the APEX administrator and APS representative,
which is usually the executive director or the chief
operating officer. This second signature makes the document
official and serves as a proofreading opportunity by another
pair of eyes. We then prepare the certificates and items to return.
The format we use for the information on each certificate
is simple: Country, catalog name and number, used or unused,
back of the stamp condition (gum, no gum, disturbed
gum, original gum, etc.), genuineness, flaws, faults and other
pertinent information that will be placed on the certificate.
160 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / FEBRUARY 2018