Weird 1c Green Washington

Has anyone seen an example of the 1c green Washington like this before? It's an extremely odd, pale gray-green colour. In the scan below, it is somewhat brighter than it appears to the naked eye, so please imagine it a shade or so lighter. Does anyone know what to make of it?

I'm no expert in the Washington/Franklin issues, but the color doesn't look that unusual as compared to these two examples from my collection:



Since they are all perf. 11, I have always identified mine as being Scott 498, which according to Scott Specialized has color varieties of green, light green, dark green and yellowish green. Of course, the examples shown would be of the light green variety.

Oh yes, they're very similar!

Thanks for posting those examples, wt1!

I'm surprised to learn that this is the way the stamp was supposed to look. It seems such an unlikely (faded, washed-out) looking colour.

Have a great Christmas!

These are not SC498's - they are all SC525's with that characteristc greygreen color.

Thanks for the info. I never went as far as to look at Scott 525. How can you tell the 498 and 525 apart? Is it the color? I also note that the 525 are one of the few stamps of this era that are noted to be Offset printing ... is there a good way to tell the Offset printing from the Flat Plate printing variety, or is color the easiest way to tell?

Scroll down to the section titled Distinguishing Offset Stamps

http://www.1847usa.com/washfrank/pr...gmethods.htm

Thanks for the link. I had never studied Offset printed stamps before. Quite interesting reading.

Yes, very helpful link. Book marked for future reference.

Me 2 bookmarked the link.....thanks.

that is really a great site for dealing with early US stamps.