The Dirty Business of Clive Feigenbaum
WorldStamp
Wow! It’s about time a prominent US philatelic publication brought the risqué dealings of Feigenbaum to the public! Bravo to Mr. Winick and to Linn’s for publishing this piece.
LINN’S STAMP NEWS AUGUST 4, 1997 Page 26
The Insider
By Les Winick
British cinderellas move into Asian trade
The booming stamp trade in Asia is causing more concern that unsuspecting collectors will be duped by a flood of cinderellas emanating from England.
Last week, this column reported the launch of Russian cinderellas at Singapore 95 by Stampdile, the British dealership operated by Clive Feigenbaum. the former chairman of Stanley Gibbons Holdings.
Feigenbaum who first began to produce labels in 1969 for the supposed break-away state of Nagaland in northeast India, was the subject of an article in ‘Filateliya’, tile Russian Stamp magazine.
Published in periodical's first issue of 1997 and tided "The Dirty Business of Mr. Feigenbaum," it said label entrepreneur Feigenbaum was "quick to latch on to the chaos" prevailing in Russia at the end of tile Cold War.
That article was followed June 8 by a copyrighted story published in Asia Stamp News by Larry Lau and distributed on the Internet to members of the International Stamp Dealers' Network.
Titled "Abkhazia, Batum, Easdale Island, Tuva: Where on Earth Are They ... Or Not?," it reported that Feigenbaum, operating as Stampdile Ltd., was barred from taking a hoot at Hong Kong 97, tile big international show last February.
"Oh, you remember Feigenbaum"' Lau wrote. "In the no-too-distant past' he made headlines when Scotland Yard … investigated him for controversial stamp dealing activities."
In 1989, he was found in contempt in a civil case involving the production of Tuvalu stamps in England and sentenced to three months in jail and fined £3,OOO.
Lau said Feigenbaum learned from the philatelic press of "the stamp collecting boom in the Asian Pacific market.
"In recent months, Feigenbaum has been flooding Chinese markets with labels from so-called places like Tuva, Batum [and] Esdale Island.
…They are not countries wit real borders or postal administrations and are not recognized by anyone as official legal tender."
Feigenbaum. said Lau, "has been successful in persuading stamp dealers throughout Asia that 'his' issues are legitimate stamps valid for postage..."
While the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue does not list these emissions, Stampdile has secured a presence tile prestigious catalog.
A lull-page advertisement in the 1997 Volume 5, page 567, promoted tile "country" of Tuva, a once-autonomous Soviet entity in Mongolia.
"The first stamps of Tuva were issued in 1926," the ad said. "The new Independent Tuva started to issue stamps from 1994."
Tuva is not a country, and its so-called stamps are labels despite what tile ad states.
This advertising practice continued in tile 1998 Scott catalog for the labels of Abkhazia and Batum. They are advertised on page 516 of Vol. 1.
Unfortunately, Scott permitted the ads to run in the same typeface and format as the regular listings, with numbers, description and mint and used prices.
Simply by having these ads in the bible of philately lends a certain credibility to the labels.
Stuart Morrissey, "vice president and publisher of Scott, said tile company has no policy against such ads.
"But the pages should have been clearly marked ‘Advertisement’ at the head," he said. "Unfortunately, both ads slipped - It wouldn’t happen again."
Morrissey pointed out that Stampdile is not the first company to try this approach.
"There have been others in the past, particularly some of the unlisted Aden States, but in each case the ads were appropriately labeled," he said.
Where does the hobby go from here?
Although tile organizers of Hong Kong 97 did not permit Stampdile to have a table, Capex 96 and Pacific 97 sold Feigenbaum booth space, where he was able to vend his ‘labels’.
He even placed them in the official passports and canceled them with his own canceling device.
In England, where Feigenbaum also uses the firm name of Rosen, the British national show refused him a stand at its event.
The International Federation of Stamp Dealers' Associations has taken action to become the official dealer agency at international exhibitions and regulate dealers.
In this manner it hopes to avoid the embarrassing situations that happened at Capex and Pacific 97.
Jay T Carrigan
Unless you are Les Winick or are affiliated with Linn's, posting this article
here is a violation of their copyright.
Jay Carrigan j...@crosslink.net
In article <19970801012...@ladder02.news.aol.com>, world...@aol.com says...
>
>Wow! It’s about time a prominent US philatelic publication brought the risqué d
>ealings of Feigenbaum to the public! Bravo to Mr. Winick and to Linn’s for publ
>ishing this piece.
>
<snip>
Stephen G. Esrati
Jay T Carrigan wrote:
>
> Unless you are Les Winick or are affiliated with Linn's, posting this article
> here is a violation of their copyright.
>
> Jay Carrigan j...@crosslink.net
>
> In article <19970801012...@ladder02.news.aol.com>, world...@aol.com says...
> >
writing and posting it on the Internet. One may, of course, ask
permission, which is often granted.
In this instance, however, the discussion of Feigenbaum's criminal
behavior appeared here about a month or so ago, mainly in postings from
British and Australian publications (with permission).
--
=============================
Stephen G. Esrati
Author of the terrific novel COMRADES, AVENGE US! soon to be available
from me at $7.50 postpaid (U.S. addresses only) (Ohio residents please
add 42 cents sales tax)
ste...@gwis.com
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