#s 552 & 661, Changlings?

51Studebaker and I had a good lunch yesterday (we live in the same small town, who would have thought) and we each brought our US collections for she-and-tell. He suggested I should post these 2 stamps for some expert opinions. The 661 could be a changeling although the color is pretty consistent across the stamp. It does have a bit of toning to the paper. It is NH. The used 552 is a seriously black-green. How common is this (variety)? Both were scanned with a gray card, so the color fidelity of these scans are pretty good. Thanks!

Please explain scanning with a grey card. I use a Canon MP Navigator.

White Balance assist you to get the colours in your images as precise as possible.

There are a few ways how you can adjust your white balance and make your pictures look more natural.And it is using grey card. All you need to have is a grey card either purchased from a photography gear shop or you might have some neutral grey paper yourself (make sure it's non reflective though). Hope this helps, David...

I've been using an ancient Kodak 18% gray card for years. I'm sure there are more precise digital tools now but in Photoshop levels you have your neutral gray eyedropper. Just click on a known neutral gray (that would be the gray card in the scan) and color casts will be removed. You can still adjust your highlight and shadow for best detail. My Cannon CanoScan 9000F actually does a really good job and doesn't need much help, I just use the gray card to quickly make accurate adjustments.

While looking through Southpaw's album these two stamps really jumped off the page at me. The 1C Franklin is incredibly dark. Like most of you guys I have seen thousands and thousands of them including those which were over inked; but while this one does carry some extra ink the shade is darker than any I have ever seen.

The Kansas overprint, which has single gum break, also seemed unusual in that I could not see any subtle shade variation of a typical color changling. The toning made me suspect but the uniformity of the color across the stamp made me wonder.

So I suggested that Southpaw post a few images here for feedback.
don

Assuming that the colors shown in the first posting are 100% accurate, my opinion is;

1. That the color of the 3c is simply faded, and this is sot of "proven" by the fact that the overprint is also much lighter than usual. If you have a mint K-N stamp that is mint, compare the intensity of the ink on the overprints and see if it is lighter on this stamp. If so, then the color is faded for sure. If not, then we can talk about it again, but in any case, the only other possibility is a slight dry print caused by under inking.

2. The color of the 1c does indeed look much darker than usual, but "black green" or "blackish green" seems like on overstatement of the color. I just see a very dark green. Since this is a flat plate stamp, there should be set-off (offset) ink on the back. See if the color on the set-off is exactly the same color as on the front or is it different (lighter)? This should be checked with a 10x magnification or more. If the set-off is exactly the same color as on the front, than it is indeed likely a very dark color variety, but if not, then it is likely a bit oxidized. Hope this helps!

Bill, great post. A person should always look at the back of a flat plate printing before judging color. Excellent info. for everyone.