2 Cent Washington

Hi to all

Because there are so many colour variations this stamp confuses me.
There were twenty-three of them in collection I purchased.
Maybe I should post all the colour variations to find out what is what.

However, I know the last one is a coil, but unfortunately it is damaged.
The others, are they coils, booklets or sheets.
Any help appreciated.

Welcome to the difficult world of 2 cent reds. Top right might be a booklet but the guide lines on the other three may prove them to be from 100 stamp panes. You posted nice large images but unfortunately the resolution is not sufficient to see minute details. There were so many of these printed that color alone is a poor criteria to identify them.

Possibly the best Internet site to identify these is www.1847usa.com. On the right of the home page, look for WASHINGTON FRANKLIN WORKSHEETS.

Horamkhet, The last stamp is coil. The left stamp on first image is sheet, the remaining 3 are either sheet or booklet. The first 4 are flat plate printings. Below are the possible plate layouts for the 400 subject sheet and the 180 subject and 360 subject booklet plates. The 180 subject was only used on the 332a (wmk 191).


Above is the 400 subject sheet. Note the horizontal and vertical guidelines for separating the sheet into panes.


Above is the 180 subject booklet. Note that the horizontal guide line is perforated but the vertical guideline is cut.


Above is the 360 subject booklet. Note that both the horizontal and vertical guidekines are cut.

The horizontal top guideline can only come from the 400 subject plates but the other 3 can come from booklet or sheet.

Hi quigngt and Russ,

Thank you for the information. Hopefully I will be able to sort it out.
Maybe one day there will be a specialist catalogue devoted to the 2 cent Red, Washington.
It certainly is a most fascinating stamp
Regards
Horamakhet

The 1908-1922 2 cent (third Bureau) issue has 55 major catalog numbers and 29 minor numbers in Scott (including the rarest U.S. stamp).

Nice information on 400 and 360 sheet guide lines and perforations. Thanks, Russ.

The coil appears to be SC453. The others, it will be impossible to tell if they came from booklets or sheets. However, there is no premium for booklet singles so there is no 'value' difference.

Russ-- are you referring to 482A, and did you mean "one of the rarest"? I thought the 2 rarest were the 1c Z-grill (85A) and the Continental 24c Winfield Scott (164)?

Thanks, Ray

This is 'one of the rarest' - this census shows one known.
http://siegelauctions.com/enc/census/423E.pdf

Ray, chasa beat me to the answer, only one know example. If this stamp ever hits auction it could easily set a new record price. Even the $3 million 1 cent Z grill (Scott 85A) has 2 known copies.

I have most of that washington series in a book--my friend id'd them and cataloged them--there way too confusing for me.