Newbie Grill Question. What If It's 12 X 18 Points?

Another relatively simple check you can do is the "tinfoil" test (although I prefer gold foil, which is thinner), is to lay your stamp flat and place the foil on top of it and press/rub using one of your fingers. You must put some pressure on the rubbing, it can't simply be a "light" rub, so rub slow and with pressure. Do the same on both sides of the stamp. The side that has the points sticking out will leave the stronger impression in the foil. If that doesn't clearly show which side it is, then send it to me or another service.

Disi,

When I look at your scans the points are easier to see on the reverse. I see 17 rows in light shade plus a darker 18th row at the top, and 14 columns across plus a column of vertical half points at the right. Some of the points in the first column (left) look more like vertical slits than an "x". The points on the reverse appear to be recesses, some with the "x" pattern within. The points on the obverse appear as protrusions, some of which display the "x" ridge pattern.

To me it looks like the grill is points up. I am not able to see the ridges distinctly over the entire grill, but some of the points have a simple "X", some have a horizontal ridge and the half grills on the right appear vertical.

That is what I am seeing. Make of it what you will. For my part it appears to be a candidate for an inverted Z-grill, but my vision is limited to one set of scans. I expect that things might look different if I had the item in hand. For the online view I would prefer a set of photographs (not scans) with views differentiated by the position of the light source, or at least two sets of scans in which the stamp is turned 90 degrees with respect to the other scan for each of both sides.

I encourage letting Bill have another look.

essayk... thank you kindly for your input... you're viewing the scans
similarly to the way I'm viewing them, which is why I am in such a
quandry over the stamp...

I'm going to take Bill's (and your) advice and re-send to Bill for
a second look...

Randall

What an interesting thread! Thanks to all for sharing their knowledge.

Randall - did you ever get to the bottom of the mystery points up or down?