Images Of Some Of The 3c #65 Shades

Q- the range goes from 1 (common), to 10 (scarce and rare).

Pigeon Blood Pink is a "9", and even rarer would be the dull rose found on a "B" grill, a "10", where only 4 exist.

The pinks (64): pink, lavender pink and carmine pink are all rated "7", and both lavender pink and carmine pink have been certified as Pigeon Blood Pink.

The rose pinks (64b): rose pink, deep rose pink and salmon rose pink are all rated "4".

Nitro-- you're absolutely correct that getting the shades certified wouldn't be possible, because there aren't references out there as of yet. Mike McClung is in process of having the shades printed in The Chronicle-- in the August issue from this year, they printed the different pink shades, and the authors and publishers were pleased with how they turned out in print. So maybe we'll have a reference at some point.

I think that Mike has used some technology, and I know that Jack Daley uses Photoshop elements to help identify the colors.

For example, if you look directly under the upper left "3", and scan at 9600, and zoom way in, if there are any tans and yellows, it's not pink-- because the tan and yellow are part of the makeup of the rose color. So even if the date is 1861, and it's really pink, it might be rose, if there are tan tones in the color.

I'm trying to learn all I can with this stuff......pretty difficult for a guy who is green color blind!

Thanks to all who have had questions and comments-- interesting topic and I'll post when I find more. I did pick up a couple of inexpensive pink 64's in the past couple of weeks- so I'll scan this weekend and post them.

Happy Thanksgiving to all-- Ray

Thanks Ray. I have wondered for years just how many colors there really are that were not altered by time, sunlight or the environment of the storage of the stamps. Were the names given to these colors given at the time of printing or are they later designations given by collectors? I am also hearing that super high scan resolution is a key to seeing specks of of colors to help correctly identify them. That makes sense, especially since I would have sworn that several of your examples are the same color at the resolution of the stamps in this post.

One final question for anyone to answer. Why are these #65 shades different colors but modern stamps with shade differences are usually only classified as color variations?

Q, a good one for Russ to chime in on, hopefully as the printing expert.

There are a lot of 3c 1861's and 1851-7's that are too faded to ID. A lot of the 1861's that are faded end up on ebay with the seller trying to sell them as 64's! :( And the pinks have notoriously faded over the years, as the color isn't stable-- which is the reason why they started to add carmine and brown to the ink in the first place- the lack of stability.

As I recall, there is a stamped envelope from '61 that is pink, I don't collect them so I don't remember the Scott number U- something, which is the true pink that they were trying to use for the 3c stamp, but couldn't get the results they wanted.

Ashbrook described the "near pinks" and pigeon blood. And I know that there have been color and shade students for a long time- but I don't have any of the material. McClung is the person who categorized the shades by time period and rarity by looking at thousands of dated covers. Maybe Russ can chime in here with anything back in the archives.

Thanks again, Ray

So, this comment

is what bothers me..

I think the only way you could determine a color is to use some electronic equipment. Once you scan an image, no matter how good your scanner, it won't be the same. and using computer software to try and determine the color, IMO, wouldn't be reliable... I think using mint stamps with spectrograph equipment would be the best way to determine shade. I think that is the only way I would accept someone calling a shade a shade.

I need a spectrograph for Christmas now! lol~ Great post I learned a lot.