558 Garfield Question

hello again all I have a question about the 1922-1925 regular issue Garfield 6 cent Scott# 558

i recently got packet in the mail with a few copies of these and found that one had a vastly different color. after searching my Catalog and the internet I was unable to find much information about this stamp.

this is the color of the rest of them


this is the one in question..


any help would be appreciated. thank you in advance..

oxidation? and welcome back.

why thank you I am in and out from time to time I just dont post here much any more... however in this case I needed a bit of guidance..

as for oxidation I have no idea I really cannot figure it out.. I will research that avenue a bit more and post my findings (if I find any) at this moment I am at work and it may take a bit to find anything inbetween

after a bit of looking on this mater I feel you may be correct on the issue..

now the question becomes is it worth the time to restore this stamp or let it be?

Well, for what it's worth, if you got several copies of this in your package, why bother cleaning it? I'm not even sure you can. Basically (I think) the composition of the ink has changed - feel free to correct me if I'm off base here.
Why not just keep it as is as an example? Sort of a side show in your collection.
Just a thought.

You are going to get different opinions on that. Given that it's a $1 stamp with what appears to be a scratch/crease/tear at the top, it hardly seems to be worth the time and effort.

Personally, I think having the 2 stamps in mounts side-by-side would make a great album page showing the results of sulfur contamination from the air.

If you do decide to chemical alter it, as I've said before many times elsewhere, make sure you document what you have done so there will be no misunderstandings later on down the line. My opinion.

Thanks for posting the pics!

That is correct. In "restoring" it, you are not actually changing the contaminated surface layer of ink back into the original color. Rather, you are changing that thin contaminated surface layer into a relatively transparent compound (i.e., making it nearly "invisible") so that you can see the original color of the uncontaminated ink underneath.

You are also chemically treating the rest of the stamp at the same time, which is why with the proper equipment, you can almost always detect a stamp that has been "cleaned". Used stamps that have been over-aggressively "cleaned", can often be noticed even without any special equipment.

Bearwithfish,

I know there's another thread on this very topic, but I haven't searched. The color change is from a chemical reaction that is often referred to as "Oxidation", but is, in fact, caused by sulphur (sulphur dioxide). It is quite common with US stamps printed in orange ink during the classic era.

thank you all for the replies I am most likely going to just stash it with the other copy in my album and use it as a teaching moment with my kids.. thanks again!!

Here is one of them which is also applicable to the case in this thread.
https://goscf.com/t/15068

If it's oxidation, a short bath in 3% hydrogen peroxide will reverse the oxidation, turning it orange again.

Matt