The Greene Foundation has provided the pre-eminent expertization service for British North America philatelic material since 1976. The Foundation expertises stamps and postal history issued only by Canada and the Provinces. Since 1976 it has issued more than 23,000 certificates of genuineness and more than 4800 certificates identifying a lack of genuineness. It is a member of the Association of International Philatelic Experts (A.I.E.P.), the international body of experts all over the world.

Items submitted for expertization are reviewed by members of an Expert Committee which meets monthly, an opinion is rendered and a certificate is issued to the submitter.

Items can be submitted to the Foundation by completing the submission form, enclosing the appropriate fee, and mailing the items to the Foundation at the address shown on the submission form. The fees are shown on the form. You may download the submission form in PDF format as indicated below. It will automatically be downloaded to your hard drive where you can open it and print as many copies as you wish.

Use only the current submission form with the current mailing address and fee schedule as available here. These were last updated in the fall of 2015. Do not use copies of the form from prior to that date. Both the mailing address and fees on the old forms are invalid and use may result in loss of material.

IMPORTANT: The current mailing address is :

P.O. Box 69100, St. Clair Post Office, Toronto, Ontario M4T 3A1, Canada

The physical location of the Greene Foundation is 10 Summerhill Ave in Toronto.

Click for map and directions!

Submissions of B.N.A. material from the United States and Overseas: There have been instances where submissions coming from outside Canada were charged GST(Goods and Services Tax) by courier firms or the Post Office. The Canada Border Services Agency has confirmed that this is incorrect. They have indicated to us that submissions should be described as: "Items sent for expertization only, and to be exported back to USA (U.K., Australia, Germany,etc). No commercial value until expertized."

DOWNLOAD the Expertization Submission Form in PDF format HERE. (155KB)

Submission form »

1. Use a separate form for each item submitted. Complete the top half of the form, more specifically the boxes entitled Submitter’s Statement, Item Submitted and Opinion Requested.

2. Fee Schedule table at the bottom of form should be completed once only covering all items submitted.

3. Package and postage charge is payable on each complete submission, not on each item.

4. Stamp values are to be based on the current edition of Scott or Unitrade catalogues. Where Unitrade provides values for different levels of condition use only the Fine condition category. For unused stamps do not add extras for OG or NH categories where provided in Unitrade.

5. Remit fees by cash, cheque or money order with submission forms. The Foundation does acknowledge receipt of submissions.

6. Time frame for completion of expertization, issue of certificate and return of item is about 8 weeks.

The Greene Foundation issues a genuine certificate, green colour, where the stamp or cover is genuine and it is either fault free or has faults such as a tear, thinned paper, disturbed original gum, missing perforations, or other faults which have not been repaired.

Where a stamp on or off cover has faults which, in the opinion of the Expert Committee, have been repaired with the intention of deceiving a collector, then these alterations are described and a pink certificate declaring a lack of genuineness, is issued. Such repairs include removal of a cancel, regumming, repair of tear, addition of margins, rebacking a stamp, alteration of the issued colour, and addition of a stamp to a cover on which it did not originate.

If a submitter disagrees with the opinion of the Expert Committee, the opinion will be reviewed upon the request of the submitter at no extra charge.

Samples of the Current Green and Pink Certificates are shown here.

The photo of the submitted item will be fastened to the certificate and the Foundation seal impressed on it.

When referring to our certificates please refer to them as being issued by the Greene Foundation, rather than by V.G.Greene or "VGG".

In February 2012, the Greene Foundation acquired the highest level Video Spectral Comparator made by Foster Freeman – the VSC6000/HS. It has greatly enhanced our analytical approach to expertizing. This enables the Committee to examine items suspected of being rebacked, having cleaned, altered or enhanced postmarks, having various types of repairs, removed or altered colours, by subjecting the material to a wide range of wavelengths of ultraviolet, infrared and filtered visible light.

Where the machine reveals repairs not visible to the naked eye, a picture of the image seen on the VSC6000 can be printed and returned to the submitter.

While reasonable care will be taken of any item submitted to the Foundation, neither the Foundation nor any director, officer, employee, agent or consultant will be liable for any physical or financial loss or damage suffered, whether as the result of negligence or otherwise, with respect to any item submitted to the Foundation nor as the result of any opinion which may be expressed by the Foundation or any officer, director, employee, agent or consultant as to any items submitted to the Foundation.

Consent is hereby given to the Foundation to consult any person or persons with respect to the item hereby submitted to the Foundation. In addition consent is hereby given to the Foundation to use commonly accepted non destructive methods of treating the item for the purpose of arriving at a conclusion with respect to its condition, watermark or other characteristics.

In making its determination the Foundation will endeavour to describe any and all flaws not visible in the photograph, such as thins, repairs, stains, removed cancels, etc.

Any person submitting any item to the Foundation is deemed to have accepted these conditions.

The Expert Committee meets every four weeks to review items. In addition to the members on the Committee, the Foundation uses a variety of outside experts for assistance in specific specialized areas.

  J. Edward (Ted) Nixon (Chairman)

  Glenn Archer

  Michael Babier

  Patrick Durbano

  Chris Green

  Sam Hakim

  David Hobden

  Bill Longley

  Lawrence Pinkney

  Garfield Portch

  Kimmo Salonen

  Yohann Tanguay

CONSULTANTS

The Expert Committee has excellent relations with other expert committees and individuals and will consult with one or more of them in a case of difficulty.