convince the court that he had no deceitful intentions in the sale of the stamps. He considered himself to be an artist and not a counterfeiter. Furthermore, he declared to the court that he had merely forgotten to clearly mark the stamps as forgeries and he promised to be more diligent about such marking in the future. He claimed that he had offered the forgeries of rare stamps at about 1% of the normal market price in order to assist the simple collector to obtain these rarities. Nevertheless, the Parisian judiciary convicted Sperati and sentenced him to a year in prison, 10,000 francs fine and an additional 300,000 francs for criminal intentions. The Parisians' judiciary did not convict him on the basis of the imitation, but rather because of Sperati's "deceitful intentions". He was convicted in April 1948. After the guilt verdict Sperati did not have to serve his prison sentence on the grounds of his age – he was already over 64 years old. In 1954 he sold all his remaining forgeries as well as all the clichés to the "British Philatelic Association." He then withdrew from the forgery business and promised never again to falsify a stamp. His motive for selling the tools of his trade to the "British Philatelic Association" was to prevent them falling into the possession of someone who would imitate his work. Sperati died three years later in Aix-les-Bains at the age of 73. His life's work The stamp forgeries of Sperati are some of the best of the world. He created forgeries of the 10 cent black, one of the first United States postal issues, in 1847. It is possible to identify these forgeries by two small flaws. Many Sperati forgeries remain undetected. Sperati falsified the most valuable rarities of the stamp world. He did this with an inimitable precision. A Sperati forgery is far from worthless. They obtain high prices as special collectables. Sperati paid great attention to the accuracy of the postmark when falsifying the stamps. Therefore, postmarks found on his forgeries are limited to those of larger cities. Sperati's forgeries are currently valuable in the philatelic market. He probably produced more than 5,000 forgeries. See also Erasmo Oneglia List of stamp forgers Philatelic fakes and forgeries References Further reading Lowe, Robson. (1955) The Work of Jean de Sperati. London. Tyler, Varro. E. (1976) Philatelic Forgers: Their Lives and Works. London: