Real or Memorex? Bogus fuze packs

[emike123]

A couple guys at Mansfield turned me onto the ways to distinguish fake fuse packs from real ones.  Among other things it boils down to the way "fuze" is spelled on the label.  Capital letters = bad.  Here is an example of good (one date can be seen) and not good (date obscured).  I have seen more difficult to discern fakes as this one is not as good as some.  The Plumber opened a couple of these bogus packs and told me they had wood and plastic dowels instead of fuses in the spots.

[jonpatterson]

Thanks for the information. Definitely an easy to remember and quick way to weed out some of the posers.

[joevann]

My rule of thumb:  If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Mike,
   Is the second fuse pack real?  They both apear to me as having "SECOND FUZES" in all caps.
Can you post a real one for comparision?
Cheers,
John

[emike123]

Its the smaller lettering that is the giveaway, John, not the "title."  Second pack is real.

[Selma Brooke Gunner]

Thanks for passing the info along.

[Dave the plumber]

                     I had only seen the 8 second yellow colored one before that was fake. I didn't know there were other times too. Oh well, some ass has got to f- up a good thing if their is money to be made, I guess.   Also, the scroll work is not the same, and on the one I opened the pull tab material was different. Whoever is doing this, is doing it intentionally to make money. Period. Slime.....

[1840cavsaber]

the instruction lettering on the FAKE is sloppy, compared to the original.

Since I always loved gun powder, I would be sniffing those packs to see if they smell like powder.........since the fakes are loaded with dowel rods?

 
if these are being sold as repro's, then I don't see a problem with it, but if sold as original, that's another matter......

[emike123]

They are often being passed off as original but I doubt the resellers know they are bad as most of us didn't either.  I'll try to find a better example as this one is more obvious than some.  Part of the reason the writing looks bad is it is distorted by a modern Saran wrap wrapper that has been put around the phony example -- perhaps an effort to thwart your sniffing for the scent of gunpowder!  Certainly wouldn't want the dowels to fall out would they!

[Jim T]

1840cav is correct.  The type is sloppy...along with the rest of the printing...borders and all.  As a typesetter, with a trained eye for type styles and characteristics, this IS a dead give-away on fakes.  Actually, I'll go on to say that "sloppy" printing might be okay (as in smeered ink), but look out when the edges of the printed material is not crisp and sharp.  Also the paper does not look "right" to me.  These are all the same characteristics that gave away the fake Charleston Arsenal cartridge packets that surfaced a few years ago.

[emike123]

The repro ones continue to surface every so often:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Artillery-shell-fuse-pack-12-sec-fuses-1864-/271309691804?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

[divedigger]

dang, now I have to look at mine

[FortDonelsonRelics]

I purchased a lot of 6 fuse packs and three of the them were the fake ones shown above - there is another tell sign, if you look at the border of the label - the fake has no diamond shapes inside the border. I opened them and all of them had wooden dowels in them. - John Walsh

[Dave the plumber]

           looks like we have a new member - John Walsh of Fort Donelson relics.  Welcome aboard John !!              For those of you who don't know John, he has a commercial site selling Civil War militaria and he is honest, a nice guy, and easy to deal with.........  highly recommended !!

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Welcome to the Forum John.
Regards,
John Bartleson