Wierd 3 Cent Green Washington That I Can't Seem To Id.

Can anyone shed a little light on this stamp for me? I cant seem to locate it in my books. Thank you. The glassine that holds it has #79E8 scribbled on it but makes no sense to me?? Below is a picture of it.








Edit: had to remove the ¢ sign from header.

I had take a second look,
for a moment it looked like "Phree cents"

I have no experience with these stamps, but a 79E8 is an "Essay". The design matches your example and apparently they were produced in any number of a dozen different colors. Yours obviously is green (but there was also a light green, blue green and pale green variety). They are 1867 Essays (Henry Lowenberg).

The description is said to be "Washington vignette. Printed in reverse on back of transparent paper, reads correctly from front. Plate essays from sheet of 25." Based on my 2002 Scott Specialized Catalog, value was listed at $10.

cool. I actually thought is was a forgery from back in the civil war days as perhaps a way to undermine the government by Ole Johnny Reb. or something...lol Guess I was way off base but like I said tat was only an (un?)educated guess. I like it more now. haha. ~Jay

that is a great looking stamp.
i hope it is the real thing...but it is still a cool looking stamp

Nice Stamp!

More here...
http://www.theswedishtiger.com/x186...wenburg.html

Be careful with this one!
Lowenberg Essay's are notorious for the printing flaking off the back of the stamp.

This is one of the reuse prevention ideas from the 1860's using the decalcomania technique. This essay (printed by National Bank Note Co.)was from patent 45,059 granted to Henry Loewenberg on Nov 16, 1864. There were 4 different patemts issued for this technique as applied to postage stamps between 1863 and 1876. This particular stamp used transparent paper, applied the gum and printed over the gum on the pack side. The design would show through the transparent paper but effort to remove the stamp of the cancellation would cause the gum to soften and destroy the printed design. This paper was goldbeaters skin or onion skin rendered transparent with beeswax and turpntine.

Loewenberg produced two different types of decalcomania stamps the other being patent 40,489 (Nov. 3, 1863) which was essentially a transfer decal type stamp (private essays were printed by the National Bank Note Co.) Other related decalcomania patents are Felix Walker patent 127,663 June 4, 1872 which differed in that coal oil was used to render the paper transparent. Joseph Schnoble (who produce the Continental Bank Note pink suface fugitive paper) patented a decalcomania (patent 171,871 Jan 4, 1876) in which a water soluble starck size was applied to the back of the paper, the design was printed on the sizing and covered with gum. Attempts to remove the cancel would dissolve the size and release the printed design.

Many of these reuse prevention ideas are not well documented and often misunderstood. Most references to your stamp even spell the inventer's name wrong. The PF database, Siegel Auctions and Scotts catalog spell it "Lowenberg". The patents and all signed documants that I have seen is "Loewenberg".

wt1 is correct, it is one of the many colors of the Henry Lowenberg 1867 essays. most likely the light green. These freaky stamps are not that common and are very hard to find in any kind of decent condition. They where printed on varying thickness of onion skin paper which has not stood the test of time. Usually you will find the ones printed on the thinner paper with small pin holes. And, almost all that I have seen are yellowed and have other ageing defects. I feel this is one example where the Scott is not doing justice in the value and in my mind are worth a lot more than the listed Scv.
Also, glad to see you looking at essays and welcome to their lunacy.
Ron

This technique was also used on production stamps from Prussia in 1866 on the 10g and 30g (Scott 21-22).
Revstampman, this issue is fragile but is not nearly as prone to flaking as the essay produced to the earlier patent (40,489).

Wow I never thought this little stamp would stir such a flurry of information! I'm just happy it's real. I love all the proofs & essays and pick them up when I can. I'm always surprised at the priced you can purchase the proofs for. I think they should be valued higher than they are just on their beauty and clarity alone. ~me

Russ, I just learned something as well. I have a number of the earlier Lowenberg Essay's. They flake like crazy! I was going under the assumption that the same materials and process was used. Shame on me for the assumption!

revstampman, I picked up several different examples of reuse prevention items years ago. In strating research, I found that there was no really good reference work on these. There is a large amount of confussion even amoung the outstanding U.S. resources sucha as the Siegel nad PF databases. This prompted me to do more research and I have identified over 88 patents or techniques used in the U.S. It is a diverse and interesting subject to say the least.

Brand new topic for me, thanks everyone!

I have been doing research for a book for about 5 years. It requires me to do a lot of patent research. I have gotten fairly good at Patent searches and found alot of research tools. But, it is still a pain in the (censored). When I get really stuck I ask My Brother (a patent Atty.) and he normally finds it within a few minutes! It amazes Me every time.

There are definite trick to effective patent searches unfortunitely, I was almost done by the time I learned them.