Color Variations On Five Cent Jefferson S-27, S-28, And S-29

I'm confused on the various color variations in the 1857-59 Type 1 Jefferson Five Cent Issue. S-27 is Brick Red valued $1650, S-28 is Red Brown valued at $1200, S-28b is Bright Red Brown Valued at 2100, S-28a is Indian Red valued at $3500, and the common variety of Type 1 is S-29 valued used at $375. In my own collection of mostly certified varieties I can't see the color variations. I believe this is the only difference between these type 1 varieties.

I decide I would see if I could see the difference in better stamps borrowed from the fabulous Siegel database. I took two examples of each and made a chart. I know colors vary on computer screens, but I would expect at least a bit of noticable difference. I would appreciate enlightenment and perhaps an explaination for my dilemma.

collecting them: just try your best based on the Siegel charts
buying them: insist on a certificate, besides colours, there are tons of hard to spot flaws.

These can get tricky and chasa's advice is paramount. Also these are probably the least studied of all the earl classics.

I don't know if this will help you at all but it is insightful.

http://www.uspcs.org/the-1851-1860-...56-5c-issue/

The Siegel website is indeed"fabulous" and in fact, it is usually the #1 philatelic site that I recommend to people. That being said, do not ever rely on that site for color comparisons, as that aspect of that site is pretty awful.

If you can not easily see the difference in color in your 5c 1857-60 stamps, then chances are good that one of two things are responsible;

A. There really *IS* no difference because you don't have different stamps** (more on that later) or;

B. Are you possibly a bit colorblind (and I do NOT mean that as an insult at all.....).

The fact that you say they are "certified" arouses my curiosity and leads me to speculate that maybe when you say "certified" you may not mean as in certified by a recognized expert service? Maybe you simply mean that is what the dealer you bought them from told you? Please clarify exactly WHO certified them and/or maybe even show us a scan of the certificates?

All of these colors are pretty distinctive (except that "Indian Red" and "Bright Red Brown" are rather close) but if you put genuine copies of #27 (brick red) next to a #28 (red brown), next to a #29 (brown), you should have NO trouble telling the difference (unless, as I suggested earlier, you could be somewhat color blind).

Hope this helps and we will look forward to clarification from you about the "certified" stamps you mentioned in your original post.

Thank you Bill Weiss for your very informative comments. First, I was wrong when I said my S-27,S-28, and S-29 were certified. I believe they are correctly attributed but could be mistaken. Much of my collection was developed 30 years ago before I was smart enough to buy only certified stamps. I may be sending these to you soon!

Secondly, I demonstrated to myself that the Seigel pictures are NOT color correct.

I have taken a picture of my S-27, S-28, and S-29 using careful color correct lighting and a camera. I have quite a bit of experience taking color correct pictures as I breed flowers in my spare time. One can clearly see the color variations on my own stamps. The forum only allows very small 100KB pictures, so I'm hoping I can provide a link here:
http://www.daylilygarden.net/S-27-2...rcompare.jpg (if this link does not work, I'll post a small picture here)
Here is also a link to my S-30 and S-30A where one can see entirely new colors.
http://www.daylilygarden.net/S-30-30A-compare.jpg

Thank you Bill Weiss for being here to share your extensive stamp knowledge.

Well I can't comment much on color but you have an amazing collection/assortment of these! One of my personal favorite designs ever printed! (besides the #38 of course!) Thank you for showing these and also, may I please have a link to the Seigle's website? I recently lost all my short-cuts..

http://www.siegelauctions.com/

My favorite link is the search feature. You can search any Scott number and find an entire history of sales. Gives a nice picture, details of the stamp, and the price it sold for.

I am amazed at the resources on line regarding stamps. Many links have been posted on this forum that I find essential to really understand early stamps.

Irisgarden;

Those pictures are very good and all 5 of the stamps are correctly identified - except that it is possible the second stamp is a 28A or 28b. It is not possible to be sure based only on a scan. I would need to see it. But all the others are correct. I would suggest that you get the #27 and #30 certified as they both are valuable enough to justify the cost of expertizing, but you will increase the resale value of them by much more than the cost of certification. Buyers have much more confidence in the ID and condition description of any stamp when it is accompanied by a certificate from a recognized expert service.

Thank you Bill. I'm out of state on vacation now, but I'll arrange to send those to you later this spring for certification. I have several Weiss certificates in my collection and have been impressed with the verbage on the certificates matching what I can see on the stamps at 30X.