Postage Due Stamps ID

hi all

is there any way to id these postage dues stamps except by just color?

i am not really to certain about my eyes and color.[that may just because I am getting older]

i think these are j1, j2, and j3

The Clarets fluoresce yellow under UV light, so they are relatively easy to be sure of. The Browns and Red Browns can really only be told apart with any real certainty by having a large quantity of stamps and comparing them, both come in too many shades to really do it any other way.

i am just going through the same thing myself,,even the bright clarets are not always a sure thing !(to me anyway)

So there are no printed color references for these stamps anyone knows about?
The only recourse is to collect enough stamps to be able to eventually discern a difference?

I ask because I've been avoiding sorting the postage dues for a while given the potential effort involved.

All 3 colors are subject to fading and toning over 125+ years. The "browns" are easy to figure out, and the "bright clarets" are next. Whatever's left over is "red brown" LOL LOL.

Every time I read about this subject it intimidates me a lot. I think if I ever really buckle down and tackle these pages I'll just buy them as complete sets. ha-!

White and Bower have produced a book (costs up to $500) "The Encyclopedia of the Colors of United States Postage Due Stamps, Volume 5, Postage Due Issues 1879-1916".

This from Afrken's Book, "Postage Due, The United States Large Numeral Postage Due Stamps 1879-1894"

'The color shades of the Large Numeral dues pose the only real problem in studying these stamps....The very early printings of the dues were brown, not the reddish brown that the Post Office had announced in the May 5, 1879 Circular. Some of the 1882 and 1883 printings were distinctly yellowish, a yellow brown. Some earlier writers thought the yellow brown appeared in the first printings. A careful study on dated covers by Warren R Bower has shown that the earliest printings were brown and that the yellow browns did not appear until three years later. The yellow browns are particularly noticeable and common on the 3c stamps. These brown and yellow brown dues are Scott J1-J7.

The May 5, 1879 Post Office Circular had announced that the new postage due stamps would be a reddish-brown. They were not reddish-brown: the new stamps were just plain brown. The discrepancy should not be surprising. Precise color control was almost nonexistent in 1879, and exact color probably was not a high priority in the production of these stamps.
Starting in 1884, quite possibly under pressure from the Post Office Department, the American Bank Note Co began to add more red to the brown ink. The amount of red was gradually increased over the months of 1884 and 1885. It is most important to emphasise the gradual nature of the change from brown to red brown. There was no sudden, sharp change: brown from one printing, red brown from the nest printing. Rather, we have essentially a continuous variation of shades, from brown printings in 1884 to obvious red brown printings in 1885.

The intermediate shades can cause problems for people who insist on forcing stamps into inappropriate classifications."

I don't know but I think I see a little red in them, but then again I'm a Newby Stamper.

Sorry, but surely that is the point of stamp collecting - not to have a single copy of something that someone or something has persuaded you is a SG 227Ab(ii) or whatever, but to study the stamps and find out all you can.

If you are really interested in this issue - Get lots of cheap examples. Compare them. Try to get some with clear dates on. Put them under UVF. Read all the literature. Include in that articles on chemical analysis of colour. Make up some pages showing the full range of shade. Try to come up with a sensible analysis of where the divisions are. Find other collectors who are working on the same problem and compare results. Write up your conclusions.

Then come back here and tell us what the answer is

And if you are not really interested in this issue - what does it matter precisely what type it is?

Here's how I have mine identified but I'm surely no expert:




Though I did use many examples that I have to compare before I put the best in my album