A forgery (or "fake" - used here interchangeably) is simply a replica that is purported by an owner or selling agent to be genuine.  Sometimes the origins of this mistaken identity are accidental.  Normally with communicator props, however, they are anything but.

The Mark English ("ME") forgeries constitute the vast majority of those replicas intentionally pawned off as originals.  In their day, the MEs fooled even the best of experts, including Star Trek's foremost collector Greg Jein.  Mailing out of Rhinebeck, New York, Mark English sold to a hungry and growing audience communicators, phasers, and tricorders that seemingly had all the trimming of a genuine article.  These fake comms, based on an actual prop he temporarily owned, cleverly incorporated some small authentic features and manufacturing quirks usually not seen in a "clean" replica.  There is often a crudeness associated with the construction, dismissed by their proponents as evidence of its vintage "hand-built" origins or on-set repairs.  Similarly, to show what people would expect in an old prop that suffered a lot of abuse during filming, a pronounced aging effect was often applied, seen most commonly on the brass hinged antenna mesh.  The originals, by contrast, as we have now observed were created with a decidedly higher level of craftsmanship and have weathered the years remarkably well.  All of these specific differences, or "tells" as they are known in the biz, can today allow one to quickly pick out a fake, even in a small picture.

Despite the current efforts of Mr. Jein and other knowledgeable and savvy experts to warn the public, the damage has been done.  ME fakes are everywhere, having been sold to the next generation of unwitting collectors.  As these are now often accompanied by COAs (Certificates of Authenticity) either faked or signed by equally unsuspecting former Trek staffers, we find that many owners are still utterly assured in their minds that theirs is real.  Regrettably, of all the communicators that have been sold through accredited auction houses, EVERY SINGLE ONE has been an ME fake... except for one; Profiles In History's 2001 sale of Delta, owned for 32 years by TOS Set Decorator John Dwyer.  And just forget about anything you've seen to date on eBay from private sellers.

Note - just because your communicator prop does not exactly match this one below does not mean yours is then authentic.  After all, it must also clear a much higher bar of perfectly matching a still-unaccounted-for comm and have all the details of known originals.  Many variations can be seen among known forgeries, resulting from different people having done the work.  Basically, if your comm has ANY of these tells, odds are overwhelming that it is unfortunately a fake.

THE "TELLS" TO A TYPICAL MARK ENGLISH (ME) FORGERY:

1.  Pronounced brass antenna aging.  Originals have so far been seen as still smooth and clean, with only a light patina.  Not seen in this example, but sometimes the perforation holes are also the wrong size - being too large or too small.  See below.

2.  Antenna hinge wheels are large and crooked; the slots they fit into are cut both crudely and extend too far into the flat surface of the control recess.  Originals had cleaner slots that end pretty much right at the bottom of the back recess fold.

3.  The moiré insert is a complete two-layer radiating "spider" pattern.  While this is seen in the screen-used motorized heroes, it has not been observed in any dummy, where the bottom paper layer has always been of a different pattern altogether (illustrated here).

4.  Jewels are plastic instead of glass, lacking sparkle.  Bright yellow, green, or blue are colors not clearly observed in any screen capture image.  Often, they are mounted on inverted N-gauge train (instead of slot car) wheels, as shown here:

5.  The control panel is cut with wavering outside edges, and many corners both on the outside and in the "mic-grill" rectangular cutout are very rounded.  Originals are seen with corners cut much more crisp and sharp (shown here).

6.  The mic grill has the wrong material inserted.  It uses a mesh with a similar diagonal pressed pattern, but the holes have the wrong size or spacing:

7.  The lower left corner of the control well has the same outward bend error that Wah Chang had in most of his, but it is more pronounced here.

8.  (Not Pictured Here) A shiny shell.  All original comms were made of a semi-gloss black Kydex with an ultra-fine left/right "haircell" texture (see this for a close-up.)  Many fakes have a smooth, polished look.  See directly below for an example.

MORE FAKES...

HERE'S A WELL-KNOWN FORGERY HERO...

The owner of this prop maintained it was built by the studio shop at the beginning of the third season, since according to him, not enough of Wah Chang's ten communicators had made it that far in good condition.  We consider his opinion to be wholly without merit, as both original Alpha and Beta heroes (still working) and many dummies readily show up all throughout 3rd season screen caps.  In contrast, no comm prop with hinge wheels protruding deeply into the control well recess like this one has (a consistent easy-to-find ME tell) are seen in the show - EVER!  This combined with our knowledge that a well-known collector first purchased this very prop directly from Mark English (back before anyone knew better) informs us there is no chance whatsoever that this is an authentic Star Trek prop.

These photos above come from a Masterpiece Replicas booklet published prior to the release of the MR communicator replica (their text is included to verity the source), and indicate no copyright restrictions.  Unfortunately it seems that MR used this comm as a reference in their product.  Note - other pics of this prop exist on the website of a prominent and well-respected prop builder, but that site's contents are copyright-protected and permission to post them here has been denied.  We have extended an invitation to the owner of this comm to present evidence supporting this hero's authenticity.  He has thus far declined to do so.

ANOTHER FORGERY HERO, LIKELY FROM THE SAME MAKER...

The prop on the left was sold by a prominent auction house after getting provenance signed by a former Trek staff member who also once owned an original Wah Chang communicator.  Sounds pretty solid.  This prop was then purchased for $28,750 by we believe a renowned memorabilia collector (clip from his website below):

Now, we are in no position to formally refute this provenance, but it is our unequivocal opinion that this comm is unfortunately also, with out a doubt, a forgery.  It too easily matches features 1 thru 6 of the ME ID items above, without closely matching any of the unaccounted-for real comms shown in the Master Tracking List.

We intend no disrespect to the any of the parties involved.

[A FAKE LOOKING FOR AN UNINFORMED BUYER IN 2010...

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