Which 1 Cent Bank Note Do I Have.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Bank Notes in the mix of stamps that I bought. To be exact I had 21 of the 1 Cent Blue Franklin Bank Notes. However that was just the first part of the fun. It took me awhile but I noticed two different stamps of the same design but different art work. One had scrolls and one didn't plus the bottom was different.

The plain stamp was easy to identify I had the 212 Franklin. The stamp is well centered with white between the perfs and stamp design.

After this I fast realized that the other stamp was either a 134, 145, 156, 167, 182, 192 or 206. at first I thought way too many numbers to start to work on this one. However again there was a simple detail to first look at to help getting them figures out. I now knew there was a quick way to single out the 206.

The 206 has shading in the ball of the arabesque along with much heavier shading in the area above the "U.S." In addition it had the soft porous paper of the American Bank Note Company. So now I knew I had a 206 and a 212.

I now have started to work on the third stamp which has no ball shading. The first key to the stamp was that it had a much richer and darker blue color. It does not have the secret mark or even a hint of one in the ball on the left side of the number 1. So I thought it has no grill so it must be the 145.

So far I'm pretty sure I have identified three different styles of Bank Notes the 145, 206 & 212. I am 99.99% sure I have no 134.

I still have some more reading and studying to do on these but so far it has been both interesting and fun. I have yet tried to tackle the 3 Cent Green Washington. The 2 Cent brown "210" and green "213" Washington was pretty easy.

I hope you have enjoyed what I have learned as I go through the process of identifying these stamps.

Mk

Yes it sounds like you are having a lot of fun, Post some pics if you can so we can follow along !!

I haven't had much time to take some photographs for this but it is a good idea. I still have a lot of studying to do and they haven't been tested for watermarks just in case I made a mistake. So give me some time and I will update this for all the bank notes that I have including the small ones.

Here is a look of the total Blue Large Bank notes that I did get out of this mix of stamps.


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Probably the best $10 I ever spent. Too bad I can't do as well with the lottery or market.

It's great that your finding such great treasures for your $10.00 investment.

Dianne

you got your hands on a wonderful box of stamps. Not everyone is so lucky,