Possible I Grill On US 136 Banknote?

I picked up this cover on a lark. The stamp is one only a stamp collector could love, but my friend that I bought it from told me he couldn't tell which grill the stamp was. I have counted the grill points, and come up with 9 accross by 12 tall.

I would much appreciate any discussion, speculation, dubium or corroboration.



I had to scan the cover while in my hand at an angle to the glass to get the grill to show up. Amazed at how well it turned out.

Thanks,
Smauggie

Smauggie....I see no evidence of a grill????

Fair enough Kevin. I admit the points are hard to make out even in that image. I placed some arrows to point out the leftmost edge of the points, but even then you can't see all of them. I will play the cover some more to see if I can bring out the grill more.

This looks like an A46a (Scott 158) to me. I can't see the grill from the photo. I would love to see a better photo



Brian

smauggie....that does not look like grill points.
I agree with Brian.

Thank you Ryan. I still struggle with these. So if this did have a grill it would have to be a J grill, because that was the only grill used on these, right? Assuming it had one, of course. ;)

I have to disagree with the indentification of this as a 158 with secret mark. It would be nice to have a blowup of that lower portion to be absolutely certain, since the cancel obscures the detail a bit. But from what is visible I do not see good evidence for a secret mark. And although I do not trust color in scans online, the color shade I do see is consistent with shades of #136. Pending clearer evidence, I am going to assume it is a National printing.

I can see five points in the first column parallel to the arrow tips, and a sixth point in the column next to that. They clearly show an "X" pattern, so it is absolutely out of the question to suppose that this might be a J-grill. The choices are either late-state H-grill, or early state I-grill, for only these states show a full "X" pattern. This is important because it rules out the late state of an I-grill. However, the incompleteness of the grill impression overall leads me to prefer that this is a late state H-grill. If all of this is so, then your stamp is a 136 not a 136A. That said, this identification based on looking at pictures would need to be confirmed by an actual examination of the cover, since angling it in the light might show more, and we cannot see what the full cancel or other markings on the cover itself might reveal, if there are any other markings.

Nice analysis essayk, I think you are spot on. Your opinions always present a well thought out process of elimination and logic. Many others would avoid mistakes if they used the same process you do.
Don

Here are three I grilled 136's on covers, the scans marked a were scanned normlly, the b marked scans were scanned with the cover turned in line with the travel path of the scanner's light rather than 90* to the light as normal. Which grills show better?

Some additional images.

Stamp detail


The cover

smauggie, grill points are much larger than the ones pointed out. I don't think this stamp is grilled. Dave T

I sort of see a little part of it up in the upper right quadrant of the design right behinds George Washington's head.

smauggie....make a close up of the area like you did
with the ribbons.
Im still saying...NO GRILL!

See here also

https://goscf.com/t/38934&SearchTerms=136

Still with my original opinion....
NO GRILL.