2 Cents 319 Lake Type I

Hello,

to give you an update on this. I had contact to some experts in this area. All 319a, that can be found on the internet, seem (if you look at them on the monitor of course) to be not type I or not lake. The certificates would not be made again if resubmitted today. That is also why the prices in the auctions are quite low (up to 700 USD) for such a rare stamp. Additionally, many or most philatelists and auction people doubt that there can be a type I lake due to printing history. But: my stamp still is lake and shows elements of type I. So I got the information that it could be the only existing copy of this stamp. Of course it's great to look at such a stamp here. I will decide in the future what will be the next step for me and my stamp.

Top row is Type I and bottom row is Type II. I think the bottom right stamp is Lake shade. If I was to be a critic, I could say that the richness of the lake color is not prominent on your stamp. It may have an overall look of oxidization that darkens the red color. You can see dark patches of ink in the closeups.

Hello and thank you for your examples and hint. Indeed I had also my doubts about the color, more as about the type. But somehow the color is consistent all over the stamp. You're right, there are darker spots, but those and the less dark areas still have the same color. Even with microscope I don't find any area in the stamp where I could find a more red oder lighter color shade. I made here another picture with camera and adapted the color in Photoshop so that it fits the real stamp quite well, on a calibrated monitor with color profile embedded in the jpg, and with activated color management.

But I never had these difficulties and different color shades in scans and photos like with this stamp. At least it shows that this stamp is not an easy one. As said, it's not sure that it's a 319a, but possible and more likely as with all the certified ones.

Classic Coins - The best guess I can give you on the 319 colors on the top row are Carmine Rose left and Carmine right. The bottom two are definitely Type II and both appear to be Lake. The Scarlet color to be is unmistakably a bold dark bright red.

Stamperix - I've not seen a 319 Lake but a wide variety of colors are available. Extremely tough to search for a stray Lake on eBay as colors of scans and pictures of single stamps are virtually impossible to ID.