Type 1 Vs Type Iii, # 450 Or 488?

We think we see Type III characteristics on these stamps. Two lines of shading in the ribbons. The toga seems to show a strong impression.

With help from a Scott catalogue and Stamp Smarter we have reduced the options. If these stamps are Type III, they would be a rotary press stamp. We do see mostly green ink on the backs. I would have thought that red ink would make them flat plate printing. Red ink on the bottom of seven strip. Both options have a single line watermark. We did look for watermarks on one strip of three. We did see a mark on one stamp that looked like a small curl?

Why would a red stamp have green ink on it's back?

We think the green ink was because the red stamps were stacked onto the green ones.

Peter

Do rotary press stamps have this type of ink impressions on their back?

Everything you see on the back is a result of poor storage *after* leaving the post office. The green ink is the tip-off.

Thank you John Becker and Peter,
even though you both have different opinion's.

I can now see where years of storage could leave this type of
? residue on what it was in contact with. Interesting!

? Are these stamps rotary press?

The only flat plate printing of a horizontal perf 10 coil is #442, which is a Type I. So, if this is not a Type I, it must be a rotary printing.

If the paper is watermarked, it must be #449 (Type I) or #450 (Type III). If unwatermarked, it must be #487 (Type II) or #488 (Type III).

The coil strips look like type III Scott 488. The type I Scott 449 has a distinctive red shade. Generally, type II 487 and type III 450 aren't as well inked. In any case the scan is too small to identify the type the usual way. The strips should be checked for watermarks as part of due diligence.

The ink stuck to the gum is from contact with other stamps in the presence of moisture. It is possible that the stamps stuck to the backs of the strips lost enough ink from the design to be ruined.

It is not common to see rotary press coils with ink on the back from production.

Thank you Clark for your interest and advice.

We have confirmed that all three strips have the single line
watermarks. After looking a second time, the small curl I had mentioned seeing is an S, clear as day. The other two strips while wet showed U's and S's.

I hope this scan is large enough to determine that they are type III.

Type III it is. So Scott 450.

Thank you DougN, we thought we saw evidence of type III.

When I looked at the # 449's in the catalogue, boy did I wish they were type I. Joint line pair MNH $28,000. Wow. Better keep looking!