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CSA AUTHENTICATION SERVICE
Please
see the bottom of this page for applicable fees.
Authentication and membership applications
about half way down.
The
Confederate Stamp Alliance
has operated an authentication service since it was formally
organized October 1, 1945 as the CSA Authentication Committee.
The first Chairman was Lawrence L. Shenfield and the other
committee members were August Dietz, Sr. and Stanley B. Ashbrook.
In 2006, the name was changed to the CSA Authentication Service.
Its purpose is to determine the authenticity of Confederate
stamps and covers as well as the validity of Civil War period
postal usages that pertain to the Confederate mail system.
Postal forgeries of Confederate material date back to the 1860's
and can be quite deceptive, thus authentication has become one
of the primary missions of the Confederate Stamp Alliance.
The Authentication Service presently is comprised of six
voting members, including the Recording Secretary, and twelve
consultants with expertise in specialty areas. A color photo
certificate is issued on security paper after a consensus of
opinion is reached. If a consensus cannot be reached by the
members, a certificate of "no opinion" is rendered. Use of this
service is available to CSA members and non-members alike. CSAAS
members:
Francis J. Crown, Jr., Chairman
James L D. Monroe, Recording Secretary
Patricia A. Kaufmann
John L. Kimbrough, M.D.
A. Eugene Lightfoot
Richard F. Murphy
Peter W. W. Powell
Steven M. Roth
James W. Bowman, Emeritus
A postage and handling charge of $10.00 per patient is included
in the fee, regardless of its value or the final determination.
A photo certificate on high quality security paper is provided
with each opinion, signed by the Chairman and impressed with a
raised seal. RUSH service is no longer available.
Each item for authentication must be accompanied by an official
application and should be submitted to the Recording Secretary.
The turn around time for items submitted is generally 60 to 90
days. Non-members must pay in advance. CSA members will
be billed. A fee schedule is at the bottom of this page.
All certificates prior to 1968 have been recalled due to the
fact that they are not photo certificates, which renders one
unable to connect a specific item with a specific certificate.
Please note that we do NOT give opinions on stones or do
plating. These are time consuming and costly procedures. If you
have need of these services, we can recommend a separate
service.
The Authentication Process
Although the authentication process appears to be lengthy, it is
ultimately a system that is in the best interest of the
applicant. Patients first go to the Recording Secretary where
they are scanned and an opinion work sheet created with initial
description. From there, patients are sent by accountable mail
among voting members, who are all unpaid volunteers. Each
patient ends with the Chairman. Upon reviewing the opinions, if
the Chairman sees that there is a division of opinion on the
item, it goes to the remaining committee members and/or a
specialist in that particular field. We usually use 10 to 20
outside experts during the year, as well as our own expert
service, selected for their specific areas of specialty and
research materials to which the rest of the service may not have
access. Our own resources are also substantial. We have the
benefit of a substantial reference collection of both genuine
and counterfeit material, as well as the extensive Freeland
Reference Collection.
Once the Chairman is satisfied with the opinion, a full color
certificate is issued on security paper. A digital record is
kept of all certificates issued. Yes, it's a long and laborious
process, but one which we have honed to what we feel is the best
possible opinion for Confederate States material. While the
average process is 60 to 90 days, it may take as little as 6
weeks or even longer than 90 days on difficult items.
Tips to Speed the Process
Occasionally, applicants inadvertently cause delays in
expertizing. Often an applicant does not realize that the
contents of an envelope, if present, may actually help experts
in their opinions for a variety of reasons. If you have the
original contents, by all means please include them. If you have
done original research on the item, include copies of it. If you
have other examples of a rare town cancel, or even a common
cancel, include them - not the originals - just photocopies
which will become part of the patient records. We don't return
anything except the patient with the certificate. You get the
idea. The more information you give us, the faster we can
process your patients.
Click here to download THE LATEST VERSION OF THE
CSA
authentication application in PDF format
Click here to download a
CSA membership
application in PDF format
Can't open these PDF files? The PDF format is viewable with free
software -
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
If you don't have this, you can
download it for free here.
OR
Applications for authentication and/or applications for
membership in the Confederate Stamp Alliance are available from:
CSA Authentication Change of Command
Please send all future authentication
correspondence/payments/new submissions to

CSA Authentication Service
Gen.
James Monroe
Recording Secretary
1352 Deep Water Drive
Mt. Pleasant SC 29464
E-mail:
jim@confederatecovers.com
Rapid Scan ID
So what if you don't need a full-blown opinion from the CSA
Authentication Service, but would like an informal
identification of your stamp or cover? We have an inexpensive
solution for that too. The CSA Authentication Service has
instituted a simplified program whereby a scan of your
Confederate stamp or cover can be submitted for a rapid
identification analysis. This is an opportunity to have your
questions quickly answered about the proper identification of
your CSA philatelic item without having to go through the
sometimes lengthy formal certification process. The cost is also
substantially less.
This rapid identification service is especially suited for eBay
buyers and sellers who need a quick time-sensitive reply.
Collectors with limited knowledge of Confederate material will
also find this service helpful in identifying dangerous
forgeries and reprints. See the CSA Web site under
Rapid Scan ID for
more information on this program.
Scans submitted for Rapid Scan ID must be owned by the
person submitting the scan. Third party evaluations without the
knowledge and consent of the owner are not permitted.
FedEx Alert!
Federal Express changed their policy in 2006. It used to be that
a signature was always required unless you checked a box at the
bottom right indicating that it was alright to release the
package without a signature. Now they have reversed that. There
are 3 boxes at the bottom right of the form for residential
delivery:
-
No Signature Required
-
Direct Signature
-
Indirect Signature
If you do not check "Direct Signature", they will leave your
thousand dollar cover on my door step. I might be on vacation.
It might be raining. They won't care. Please check "Direct
Signature Required " if you are using FedEx. There is an
extra charge for Direct Signature Required of $2.25.

Fee Waived for Donations to
T.O.M. (CSAAS
Reference Collection)
The CSA Authentication Service has long maintained a reference
collection. Now it has an official name - T.O.M., which
stands for Take Off Market. Genuine, as well as
fraudulent, material is sought, particularly scarce postmarks,
unusual shades or anything which may be used for comparison to
submitted patients. T.O.M. is a good home for faulty but
scarce stamp varieties or covers, as well as counterfeits. The
purpose is two fold: 1) it gets the dangerous material off the
market and 2) it aids our experts in their future
determinations.
The nucleus of the existing collection is from the Freeland
Reference Collection donated to the CSAAS years ago, but the
CSAAS has been quietly collecting fraudulent, as well as
genuine, material for years before and after the donation of the
Freeland Collection.
A donation to T.O.M. can also be of benefit to you in
that the Confederate Stamp Alliance is an IRS recognized
non-profit organization with status # 501(c)(3) and thus any
donation thereto constitutes a tax deduction. Any item submitted
for authentication which is subsequently immediately donated to
the Service, will have the authentication fee waived.
If you wish to donate material to T.O.M, you may contact
CSAAS Recording Secretary.
FEE STRUCTURE*
*Fees are all inclusive, i.e., postage and handling are
included. |