What Is Wrong With This Stamp (C35 On Cover)?

This is taken from a cover I'm looking at on ebay:



Here's what it should look like:



As I recall, Scott does note two different shades of green. But nothing like the washed out color above. I'd like to think it is an "error" but I'm suspicious because of the way the color of the cancel bars change as they cross the stamp. I think I am going to try to acquire it, just to see if it looks the same in hand as it does as an image. Even so, I am curious if there is an obvious explanation I'm uninformed about.

Basil

Seems to me it could just be faded, probably due to exposure to sunlight.

There's also another variation - dry printing. There's a noticeable difference in the color between the wet and dry printings for this stamp.

I suppose it could be exposure to sunlight, but the rest of the cover didn't look bad. And it seems to be more than just fading, as the colors have changed: does green turn dark red when exposed to light? About the wet v. dry printing varieties, I don't see how it could account for that much color variation. Scott lists two color variations -- "bright blue green" and "blue green" -- which probably reflect the two printing variations.

It also could be complete mis-calibration of the scanner or camera. The stars on the edge of the cover do not look right to me - they probably should be navy blue or royal blue and red, but the blue ones look purplish. This could also explain the change in color of the cancel bars. If I bought this, I would have no confidence in what the item would look like upon arrival.

I thought about that. But the other items from the same seller didn't look odd. But I wouldn't be unhappy if it turned out to be that; it is a nice cover otherwise, and so if it turned out to be "normal," then I'd be okay with that.

On a tangent, I do see images from time to time that are so crappy that you have to wonder how the seller expects to sell anything. I've been buying some Colorano postcard FDC's from a seller who takes very crappy pictures. In some cases, you cannot even tell if the card has been stamped! But he starts his bids at $0.49, with $0.60 S&H, and I've bought several at the starting bid that all turned out to be what they were supposed to be.

Anyway, thanks for the observation.

Basil

I would agree with cjpalermo1964 on this item. Scanners can do strange things to stamps and covers. Images can be unintentionally or intentionally changed, as well. I would never assume a color to as it appears on an internet photo.

Agreed, scanner can distort, so this may not show much difference. Here is a scan of a FDC with 3 used singles all in 1 scan, the lower right being a dry-print. It appears the FDC is blue green, the later printings at left in a brighter shade (the "bright blue green" with the full catalog listing), and then the dry print which is also a bright shade. So there is significant variation with the FDC definitely being a darker shade.

also, the incredibly archival-unfriendly paper used by some first day cover processors will stain the stamps over time...

It looks as if the cover is tinted, almost like this was in water with a red stamp with fugitive ink. Has a pinkish tint...on my monitor, that is.

The cancel bars are only tinted red when over the stamp. IMO this rules out scanning anomalies, tinted cover etc. The stamp itself was altered somehow, probably chemically, not necessarily on purpose. Maybe some glue was used to afix an ungummed stamp, maybe someone intentionally brushed the stamp on cover with a chemical, etc.

Any more conspiracy theories? We are each looking at an image that has gone through an original scanner, ebay's system, a potential bidder's cropping and re-saving, the stampcommunity website, and finally to our own differing screens.
Also remember, this stamp was issued in the era when you sent in money and an blank addressed envelope and the PO affixed the stamp a canceled it. The odds of re-gum with a different adhesive or any chemical treatment are infinitely small. Poor envelope paper or storage, far more likely.
The few examples of this stamp I have on FDCs are indeed a dark, drab green, what I believe the be the early shade as noted before. The dated commercial uses from later years are a brighter shade. For the cancel, the extra thickness of the stamp creates more pressure as it goes through the canceling machine (and is raised above the envelope), so it picks up more ink than the envelope, which is perfectly as expected.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts, conspiratorial or not. I think, though, that the most likely explanation is a bad scanner. I went on ebay and searched for another cover like the one I was looking at, and found this one:

This has a block of four, and is overpriced, but I suspect the stamp we have been looking at will be a similar shade of green.
So I put in a bid ($8), and being the only bidder, I will have it soon. I'll post up a scan of it when I get it.

Again, thanks for the replies. And FWIW, I didn't think any were conspiratorial.

Basil

Basil,

I may not be understanding correctly, but here is a another possible answer: The full cover you most recently showed (offered by somebody else), but seemingly with the same cachet/stars, is on yellow paper. Your original post's image is seemingly on white paper. If the scanning process for the original tried to de-yellow the image (which some "too smart for their own good" scanners do try to do -- that is part of the difference between a "document" scanner and a professional-grade art/photo scanner), then it would also de-yellow the stamp, which is what you would end up with as shown in the original image. The color of the stars would not be greatly affected in this situation because they did not have a lot of yellow in them to start with.

If the cachet's green airplane in the original (assuming it has a green airplane in the cachet design) is also de-yellowed (it is a very yellow green in your full-cover image), then I think that is confirmation of what has happened.

Or maybe the original item is on white paper and the stamp is just color-affected in some way -- which other posters have mentioned. One other factor that can greatly affect color is the paper/material that the cover may have been in contact with over the years. The color problem does not have to come from the item itself; it (perhaps more often) can come from contact "pollution".

Well, here's what I received:



Obviously, the image we were looking at in my original post was made with a very bad or miscalibrated scanner. To my naked eye the cover is a lighter shade of grey than what appears in the image above made with my scanner. But the other colors look right -- red and blue for the stars, and green for the stamp. There would never have been any question about this stamp but for a very bad scan by the seller.