Could This Be A Late Use Scott #10?

I'm sorry the image quality is blurry in spots. The cover is wavy and stiff. I didn't want to mash it down to flatten for scanning.

This stamps use, judging by the large paid, is later then most scott #10's. But comparing it to the other 11's I have this stamps color is brighter. The image is sharper. The cancels make it tough to see the hair lines but the face dots are sharp and so are the mesh lines of the background.



Any thoughts?

This is a #11. #10 is only in the Orange Brown color shades (some variance in the depth of color, but still Orange Brown). #11s can have sharpe strikes/images from early printings of plate use.

I would say based on the color, if it is accurate, that the stamp is an 11A in a '52 brownish carmine color. I see some hints that the stamp is from plate 2L but the scan is not that great. PLate 2L only produced Scott #11A.

Excellent. Thanks. Again I think this is probably one where if I ever get a look at the 10 I'll always be able to recognize it.

I have a mess of #10's and they still give me a headache! lol These can challenging but lots of fun to study. Lets have a peek at the whole cover eh? Maybe there is another 'lil piece of info that could help your cause here? plus, I just wanna look at it too.

I_Love_Stamps, I will scan the entire thing this evening. It's a small envelope. I like it because of the concentric circles of the stamp image, the paid stamp and the red boston stamp.

I like these Boston Paid cancels and look for them on my different searches. That is a nice find regardless of the stamp in my opinion and I'm sure I'm not alone in my thinking. Am I?

The letter inside was written by the Reverends(the addressees)daughter. She is visiting here Grandmother near Boston. It's her Birthday and Grandma is taking her shopping.

Pretty cool to have the letter, nice to know things haven't changed much.

That's a neat "ladies cover"! Good score.

Also, here is some reading material on distinguishing the 10's from the 11's. if your interested?

http://www.uspcs.org/the-1851-1860-...-10-and-10a/

Thanks ILS. Just printed out that info.

This was the oldest cover in a shoe box full of correspondence to the Rev Clarke. A few #88's and 94's. Also a strip of three 1 cent franklin's.

really a strip of three one cent blue franklins eh? Are the stamps perforated or unperforated? That would likely stir up some good philatelic conversation!

Oops, sorry for the tease. No nothing that great. It's the later stamp, 1870-79 version. They have the secret mark. I forget the Scott number. They are in nice shape and well centered. cancels are not interesting though. But nice to have a strip of three.

Check those #88s closely...look for an #85C or #85..they can be confused with #88 pretty easily, especially if the grills are weakly impressed.

I will Al E. thanks.

What is the full date on the letter? This is key to dating the stamp, and identifying it as a #10 or #11. Can you provide a better image? I am the author of the article on identifying #10s linked above.