Indentifying Watermarks

I have yet another beginner's question. Is there an easy way to find the watermark on a stamp. Right now, I am trying to identify a stamp that has either a single, double, or no watermark and am unsure how to determine it. Thanks!

liquid lighter fluid and a black tray. Zippo or Ronsonol fluid is preferred.

1847usa.com is an excellent site for collector information.
Here is the page on how to identify watermarks.
Dan

http://www.1847usa.com/Watermarks/H...termarks.htm

You can also easily hold stamp up to a bright light and view from backside but this is not 100% effective. Being familiar with the shape of the single and double line helps. Some yellow and orange stamps are very difficult to see the WMK and placing then on a black or blue sheet of paper can sometimes show the mark better than watermark fluid.

If you do just grab ronsonal from your local store it is better than expensive WMK fluid because it dries slower. Here is another link to a guide that I wrote to help identify faults on stamps. It is relevant to your question.

http://www.ebay.com/gds/Stamp-Condi...46826/g.html

Good luck!

A reminder: use the lighter fluid for watermark detection only in well ventilated areas.

And I have also found that the quality of the black tray is very important. I just purchased an older ceramic version that tends to give a very good response to Ronsonol. If you use a plastic tray, I sometimes flip it over and use the very flat back part. Any scratches, though, hurt the ability to see the watermark, so if it is damaged, I would suggest a new one.

Good luck on those hard-to-find single line watermarks in the border regions, especially on the orange and yellow stamps. Very, very hard at times.

I've also heard that the best Ronsonol is the one manufactured in the US. This is not confirmed, though.

Have fun!

I use the same watermark kit. Detecting watermarks with any tool is easier for some stamps/countries and harder for others. Hungary (excepting certain issues) and Czechslovakia for example are pretty easy. US Washington-Franklins are pretty hard. And like anything, more experience you get the easier it becomes, at least to a point.