#2523 And 3829 PNCs

I was looking for information about these two stamps, and found the color variation of Toledo Brown (#2523) on here, through the search engine.

#2523 Toledo Brown- The "29" on the Toledo Brown variety seems to be thicker than the regular issue, especially where the diagonal part of the 2 meets the bottom crossbar. (Thanks to the person who posted a picture of them in another thread.) Does anyone know of or have any very clear pictures or identifying characteristics of this issue? Also, how would I discern the Lenz Paper issue? I have all the #1, 2, 6, and 7 pncs waiting to be correctly identified. Granted, they could be all be of the common varieties, but lucking out on having one would be great at this time.

#3829- Does anyone have information about the plate numbers V3211 and V3221? I have both as used singles. The 2008 Specialized listed the V3211 single at $25 (in italics), but neither gets a price in the 2010 and the local library is still waiting to get in the 2011 issue.


P.S. Thanks to the user(s) who kept up their images of #2466's Bronx blue issue.

The ONLY way to reliably distinguish between the normal #2523 claret and #2523c brown (aka, "Toledo" brown) is the color. You cannot rely on slight design anomalies because the 2 plates used to produce 2523c brown were also used to produce the normal #2523 claret. The only difference was the ink used during part of the production run.

It is hard to spot a Toledo brown variety if it is just by itself. But the color difference is very noticeable when placed side by side with a normal stamp. If you have to take a second closer look to see if you have a Toledo brown, then you don't have a Toledo brown. It is THAT noticeable.

Any design anomalies are completely unreliable markers because of ink mixing/cross-over issues.

Regarding the #2523d Lenz paper variety. This can only be determined with a UV lamp. Under short-wavelength UV, the normal pre-phosphored paper will have a splotchy non-uniform appearance, although the entire paper surface will glow. On the Lenz paper variety, an additional coat of taggant was placed over the pre-phosphored paper. So the tagging appears fairly uniform, similar to the days before pre-phosphored paper was used. Again, side by side, very noticeable, but you should be able to notice it without comparison. But you MUST use a UV light. I have never tested it with long-wavelength UV light.