Please use this page to ID fake rings.
There has always been an issue with FAKE or FALSE rings due to the fact that in some poor countries such as Poland, Ukraine, Philippines and many others, it is very expensive to purchase rings direct from your club or union. The cheaper accepted alternatives are to have rings made which are still usable in local club races as long as they have a Prefix and Year. Unfortunately these are not registered to a Union and are quite often of poor quality and duplicated from other countries ie - DV,NL,BELG etc. We will call these false rings.
Fake rings are the new problem quite often being produced by countries such as Poland, China, & The Philippines. This started around 2007 and they are producing rare or hard to find countries, and also rings from countries that do not have racing clubs. MALAYSIA is a perfect example of this.These they then swap and/or sell to unsuspecting ring collectors to make money or get extra rings in return. These are normally rings such as:
Fake rings are the new problem quite often being produced by countries such as Poland, China, & The Philippines. This started around 2007 and they are producing rare or hard to find countries, and also rings from countries that do not have racing clubs. MALAYSIA is a perfect example of this.These they then swap and/or sell to unsuspecting ring collectors to make money or get extra rings in return. These are normally rings such as:
MAL MILLENNIUM 2000 - ( Malaysia ) - These rings were originally intended for the market to be traded or sold as coming from Malaysia. There has never been a racing club in Malaysia in over 50 years and fanciers there make their own rings using cut down coloured metal tubes for their fancy pigeons.
PERU 2007 to 2014 + card - ( Peru ) - There are 5 issues or types of rings from Peru. These all have extra letters which signify which club/union they belong to. There are no rings from Peru which say only the one word of PERU. These accompany very elaborate ring cards like many of the other fakes just to make the rings look more authentic. Peru does NOT issue ring cards with any of their rings!!!!
There is only around 120 members in Peru.
There is only around 120 members in Peru.
MDGR 2007 to 2014 + card - ( Madagascar) - There are no racing unions in Madagascar producing rings. The quality of the rings being produced in Poland are too high for such a poor country and the rings have never entered Madagascar.
K3 & K3 Derby 2007 to 2014 + card – ( Kazakhstan ) - There is a racing Union in Kazakhstan but the only year they issued their own rings was in 1996. They found this very expensive for the members who are from poorer backgrounds and so they order their rings via bordering countries such as Poland & Ukraine using their prefixes.
There is also a company in China producing DV,NL,BELG, CHN, TAIWAN, JPN & FR fakes, with ring cards as collectors items, and will also make to order. But in actual fact they are copying the real union rings from those countries which are then being sold to ring pigeons and in the future could cause severe issues with cheating.
Here is a typical fake ring produced by the chinese factories.
These rings are being circulated by a very well know collector as genuine Finland 2013 rings. So be careful not to be caught! The ring colour is wrong, the metal in side is gold and not silver and the font that the FIN13 is in is wrong. BELOW YOU CAN SEE GENUINE FINLAND RINGS.
These rings are being circulated by a very well know collector as genuine Finland 2013 rings. So be careful not to be caught! The ring colour is wrong, the metal in side is gold and not silver and the font that the FIN13 is in is wrong. BELOW YOU CAN SEE GENUINE FINLAND RINGS.
There is a lot of confusion among collectors of what are fake rings and what are not?
This is the best way to outline it and there is a fine line between FAKE & genuine rings. Fakes are rings that are produced without the intention of being used on Racing Pigeons in the country that the prefix depicts & are made solely to sell or gain extra trades.
Countries that are not recognised by the FCI are not fake, such as Namibia, New Zealand, Iraq, Zimbabwe, etc etc. as these are Unions that produce rings for racing purposes to the national pigeon fancier population. They are just not part of the FCI as they do not meet the required standards
This is the best way to outline it and there is a fine line between FAKE & genuine rings. Fakes are rings that are produced without the intention of being used on Racing Pigeons in the country that the prefix depicts & are made solely to sell or gain extra trades.
Countries that are not recognised by the FCI are not fake, such as Namibia, New Zealand, Iraq, Zimbabwe, etc etc. as these are Unions that produce rings for racing purposes to the national pigeon fancier population. They are just not part of the FCI as they do not meet the required standards