Help Needed With Watermarks

Does this Iraq stamp show the Trinidad and Tobago CA Crown watermark? Can anyone give me more info on it?



Also ~
I was asking about a few stamps that are labeled under "oddities" - I am re-posting the images with their backsides!




Anything Interesting??? Thanks!!

The Crown CA watermark was used all over the place. That's why they are pictured in the front of the Scott catalogue...it limits repetition. You can find them all over the globe.

Crown Agents fulfilled all kinds of services, including postage stamps, for all kinds of places. You think of them as serving the British Commonwealth, but their services extend beyond the Commonwealth.

As for the others, I have to confess that I can't spot the oddities, unless you think that the person who assembled your collection might have put them in an envelope awaiting an i.d. of the shades. Those stamps have a number of possible shades, a few of which can be on the more valuable side. Only thing I can think of...

Thank Cjd... much appreciated! I thought I had somethin interesting with the crown. And on those "oddities" case closed... for now ;-)

I don't have a Scott Catalogue too much $$ at the moment. But I will look around for a deal. I only have a few free catalogs I requested :-)

Almost every library of any size in the U.S. will have the full set of Scott catalogues in the reference section. I understand a few even let them be checked out. (?)

If you sort alphabetically by country, you can go through them one volume at a time without too much hassle. Also, sets become much more affordable once they are a few years old (especially if you can pick them up and don't have to factor in shipping). You could ask your library how they dispose of theirs at replacement time.

Hi Amy,
Great scans of the KGV stamps but they really need to be done individually and at much higher resolution.

Please see these tutorials

https://goscf.com/t/11977 - By KirkS or
https://goscf.com/t/10675 - By me

'Almost every library of any size in the U.S. will have the full set of Scott catalogues in the reference section.'

Yes, you're very lucky over there! I found this out when I asked a seller on Stamps2Go.com how he was able to list stamps from so many different countries. He explained that he could get the relevant catalogue at his local library.

My local library only has catalogues for Australia.

I agree the 2 & 4 are sideways wm. No1 may have an appraiser mark.

Sorry for the delay.. I got side tracked with another project yesterday. What's a library? Ha! Just kidding. I will give them a call to see what they have. But I would still like to own something in the future because I plan on this being a life long affair.

I read both links giving instructions on how to properly scan in images. I will download and play with one of those programs... I wish I could continue using my current set up... just my scanner and photoshop but if everyone agrees that I should use flicker or photobucket... I will definitly look into it.. soon.

However, In reference to the Oddities at hand... I rescanned using my old method... however, individually so I hope that it is a little better.. for now. Here they are.. in the same order.

This first stamp... I believe it says... 187 Wink Rev. (wink? not sure) 187 is the envelope # that he had stored like stamps in.



















Please Note: I adjusted the levels on the backsides... is that okay? Otherwise they just appear white. And please "bear" with me because I'm still playing the I'm New card.

That is quite a lot better.
One tip for scanning watermarks is to use 'Split channels'in PS

e.g.
Goto WINDOW|SHOW CHANNELS then click on the little triangle in the channels window and click on SPLIT CHANNELS. Your image will disappear and 3 new windows will popup all in grayscale. You can identify each channel by the title. It will have the name of your image (or untitled) then the corresponding letters of your image type (RGB images will split into 3 windows one will have an "R", one will have a "G", and the other will have a "B", and CMYK images will have a "C" on one, a "M" on one, an "Y" on one, and a "K" on the other.)

Nice!
Check it out... It's the 4th one. Is it better?

I think you are doing just great with what you have.

To show really large high resolution 800-1200 ppi images it is necessary to use Photobucket or some such but most stamps can be seen clearly enough on screen without.

It is also nice to have the images still displayed in Stamp Community after your phorobucket gets erased by you or the company. Nice to have a record for future study.

For those of us having slower connections and being in the dark ages it is muchly appreciated to have images under the 90kb limit. Whenever I upgrade I probably won't notice the difference and life will be all honey and roses and stuff.

Search on here for Rod222 talking about how he scans at 600 ppi. Very informative it is also. Everyone likes their own way. I like mine and everybody likes theirs. Sometimes it is just the technology you have or access to programs or catalogues.

Thanks Puzzler!!
I've been resizing, keeping it just under 100kb... but I will modify that going forward! :)
I will check out Rod222's posts as well.

I'm working on Iraq stamps... I put the first out of 11 on my scanner and immediately I could see the watermark(s) All 11 show them nice and clear. I just scanned the group for now... because I've a lot of scanning to do! :-)

But I think it looks pretty cool :-)