New Arrival 3c 1861's, Both Certed Last Week

Just got a couple of certs back from Bill Weiss last week, and I'm sure he knows how disappointed I was when the 4th one didn't come back the way I wanted it to..... :(

But thought I'd show the front and back of a couple of certed grills, in case anyone wanted to see the backs.

This one was certed as a unused, no gum "D" Grill, #85. I bought it at least a year ago as a used #88 on ebay, but could easily see 15 columns from the ebay image. Remember that the only real difference between a #88 "E" Grill and a #85 "D" Grill is that the "D" Grill has exactly 15 columns and the "E" Grill has exactly 14 columns. The "Z" Grill also has 14 columns, but the ridges are horizontal instead of vertical as in this one:

And on the back, Bill did note a small filled thin:


Here is a used "A" Grill #79, which is "Points up" on the face of the stamp, and grilled all over...there are only 3 sides of perfs, but on a lot of the "A" Grills, the perfs can be damaged even worse than this one:

And the back:


Hope you enjoy...Ray

Great pics, Ray. Did you use a scanner for these or a camera?

Oh, and what was the "fourth" one?

What would cause a stamp to be grilled all over? Was it by design or ??

It was indeed by design, Jenny. When embossed grilling was introduced, Charles Steel and his associates tried out a few different configurations on the public. There were many more that the public never saw. The all-over grill, later designated "type A" required the least adaptation of the grill roller, and could perform the best for its intended purpose, but so weakened the stamps at their perforations that it proved impractical. For the life of the grilling experiment, they never stopped tweaking the configuration of the embossing.

Great items, Ray - esp the unused 'D' grill! Did anyone else figure it out - that is, did you have to bid it up because of the incorrectly identified grill?

Brian

Brian, knowing Ray, I doubt he paid that much for either one. #85s pop up on auction sites misidentified from time to time. That's how I picked up one sometime back (just got outbid on another once too).

Stephen, I think the one he's referring to is a #65 he sent to Bill that appeared to be on laid paper. He uses an Epson scanner I think.

Ray will probably give you a more detailed answer when he gets an opportunity this evening.

It definitely was the *almost* 65b I bought on ebay and will be sadly putting back into the mail to the seller tomorrow.

Bill wrote that there was some ribbing but the laid watermarking didn't show up strongly when dipped and that the 65b's he has seen did show up when dipped.

That would have been a cool one to have, and very disappointed that it didn't certify as such.

It is a scan at 600dpi from an Epson V500 scanner.....

Still need and I think I'll eventually have: 85C Z-grill, 64a Pigeon Blood pink, but will probably not ever get: 74TC Scarlet Trial Color on Stamp paper (formerly #74), 104 Special Printing, and no one will get the 82, "B" Grill.

Thanks for the responses, Ray

Brian, I think I paid $19 for the 85....but I have 3 others....and found one if them also misidentified....

Have received a couple of requests (and did see your email, Winston)for an image of the back of the stamp that I submitted to Bill for a cert last week, and it did not turn out to be a 65b, laid paper variety. Here is the comment that Bill offered for the ID only opinion: "The laid paper I am familiar with on this issue is evident pretty clearly in fluid. Yours seems to have some "ribs" present, but when you put in fluid, you don't see any lines. So I don't think this is laid paper. Sorry."

The scan is hosted at Photobucket and is at 4800dpi. If you reduce to about 11% of the size you see fairly clearly, especially in the lower right side (actually left side of the stamp) of the back:


After looking at this up close, it doesn't appear to be in the paper, and laid paper should be a watermark.....I don't think it's laid paper either after looking this close.

Thanks, hope this is helpful...Ray