1908-09 138, 139, 140 (How Can You Tell Blueish Paper?

Hi everyone more pics, how can you tell if you have blueish paper? Of course the stamps are old and yellowish I think these are all regulars,(#331,333, and 338. BUT MAYBE NOT...? I like the 10cent Kinda weird there is no listing for imperf for it..











Any ideas guys?
Thanks
Nick

Does the 10cent one come from a booklet in any of it's incarnations? That would account for 2 adjacent un-perfed edges.

The 10c didn't come in a booklet form as far as I know but there was a coil, but I can explain the straight edges, the the sheets were printed in sheets of 400 but had guide lines separating them in to 100 blocks but there were no perfs, your stamp is not an Imperf it is a top right stamp in the left top or bottom block because of the guide line on the right of your stamp, as for the blush paper it has a very distinctive blue/Gray colour to it.

The bluish paper issues of the Washington/Franklins can be subtle. First of all the paper is not really bluish, but more of a grayish color. Of course the easiest way is to have a genuine bluish paper stamp to compare with, but obviously that is not an option. The effect of color is perhaps most easily seen from the back against a white background.

I have read that it is more apparent against an orange background, but have never tried it.

From just the images you have posted, in my opinion, they are not on bluish paper. To repeat, that is just my opinion and the determination may be diffucult on a computer monitor.

Go to www.theswedishtiger.com and look at his stamps. That may help.

You are going to find that the Washington/Franklin issues present a real challenge, not only the bluish paper issues but all of them.

Having read the threads recently regarding damaged items, this is one reason for keeping them.
It is better to have an example for comparion of shades, paper etc than not no matter the condition.

The pic below is 332 (left) and 358 (right) from a cover. This shows the difference in paper color

Boy oh boy am I printing this. I hope I can tell now. Thanks Russ and thanks Nick for the question.