US 1894 1c Franklin

Two questions about this stamp, if I may.

(!) Is this a very unusual shade? I've only got one example of this stamp but it seems to be a distinctly gray shade of blue - quite unlike examples I've seen for sale on ebay and elsewhere. Is it, perhaps, a rare shade?

(2) Is the Baltimore cancel collectible?

Here are a couple of examples from my stockbook. I think you'll find both the color and the cancel to be quite common:

Thanks, wt1!

BTW is your first one a coil stamp?

No. Just a straight edge. Yours is similar with a straight edge on bottom; mine is on left side. They were common in the day. Many collectors consider them less desirable, but to their advantage, you can easily tell where in the sheet the stamp originally came from.

Jimjam, Actually the stamp shown is 1890 American Banknote Co. printing. The stamp was re-issued in 1894 by the Bureau of Engraving & Printing with the addition of triangle in the top corners. The stamp was printed in dull blue, deep blue and ultramarine (normally a pale shade).
The staps were issued in 400 subject sheets consisting of 4 panes of 100 each. The panes were separated by vertical and horizontal guide lines and the panes were cut on this guide lines. Your example would be on the bottom row of the UL or UR pane.
The stamp was issued on Feb. 27, 1890. 2,206,093,450 were issued from 45 different plates.

Just curious about the figure of stamps issued for this series. Is that more than 2.2 billion stamps? According to US Census figures there were only about 76 million people living in the US between 1890 and 1900, which means that more than 29 stamps would have to have been used by every man, woman and child in the country during the four years that issue was in print. Doesn't seem quite right to me. Maybe they over-estimated the number needed and some were later destroyed?

wt1, the 2.2 billion is based on POD records of delivery from ABC. The 1 cent paid the third class rate which would be newspapers and also the local delivery drop rate. The 2 cent quantity was 6.15 billion.
Edit: A few more 1 cent quantities
246, 247, 264 2.3 billion from Oct 1894 until Jan 1898
279 5.2 billion from Feb 1898 until Jan 1903
300 11 billion from Feb 1903 until Dec 1908

Thanks for the info, Russ and wt1.

I must say I prefer the way it looks without the triangles!

I guess this LA cancel doesn't cut it, either?




Actually, just another chance to show off an oval cancel I like ... it looks rather amateurish, but in a way that I find attractive. ... I suppose the letters weren't really as odd shaped as they look here - perhaps the stamp was scrunched up when the cancel was applied because the CAL looks fine.