Review Of (3) 1861 Washington 3c

This old collection has 3 Washington 3c of 1861 without grills. My question is validation of the colors. I did modify my analysis after looking at colors on the "Swedish Tiger" Enjoy the challenge!

I've deleted the numbers after Ron reviewed the pictures:

Hey Again!
I do not know if it is my monitor or your scans but your colors are way out of whack.
The one you calling calling a 64 is in fact a 64b rose pink. the cancel is a dead give away. the first known use of this issue was Aug 17 1861. the 64 and 64a were not issued until December of that year. Your number 65 looks to correct, maybe a rose red. the last one you are calling a 66 is not even close to being Lake, looks more like a 65 bright red rose.
ID'ing the A25 issues is very tricky, to begin with there were 65 different colors issued. The reason for all the different colors is the pinkish colors were not very stable and are susceptible fading. Because of the fading there is now well over 100 changling shades. If you wish to see scans of the acutal stamps, just let me know and I will post them for you.
The best
Ron

Ron, thanks for the history on these 3c stamps. I looked at different sites to try to determine which ones were which. The issue dates would have helped if I was aware. I keep finding out how much I don't know.

Unfortunately, this makes them all the "cheap" version. That's life.

I have many more interesting stamps pre 1900 to come.

Rich

The A25's are perhaps the hardest issues to ID. Other than looking at the color there is no real way to be sure unless you are looking at an essay. To make it even harder, scans on computers have a tendency to go amiss. Probably the hardest one to correctly ID is the 64a Pigeon blood pink which is the highest value in the issue. While I do not have the exact number at my finger tips, the 64a has a rarity factor of 9 and there has only been a hand full certified. I guess the best way to express just how rare it is when Bill Weiss was asked to describe the color he said "I can not describe it, but I know it when I see it". My sage advice is, if you think you might have something, have a expert look at it. You just never know.
Ron

Sorry I forgot to add this scan of a 66tc and 64a

Thanks for the info Ron!