Help With A (Maybe) #135..?

Hi guys...Still struggling with American stamps and you guys have been great helping out..Here is a stamp, dont know if it is a..

#135
#157
#146
#178
#180
#183

I am completely lost..Any help putting a Scott # to it would be appreciated.

Thanks, Robert

Good morning Wert! The color on this stamp is vermillion - making it a 178 or 183. The difference between the two is in the paper type. 180 is a special printing with both different paper and color ("Carmine Vermillion").

The earlier issues (135, 146, & 157) are all brown (or shades thereof)

Brian

Due to the color, I think you can eliminate all but 178 & 183. The difference between the two has to do with the paper ... I'll let an expert chime in on which it is.

wert,

Since brown and vermilion are so far apart in appearance, and you are saying that you are completely lost, I have to ask what kind of reference guide you are using. Do you have any catalog for helping you with these? If not, can you get one from your local library? For doing ID on the early stuff an old cat is generally good enough, so even a cheap one off of ebay will help get you over that lost feeling.

Hold the stamp between your eyes and a strong light source. Hard paper is translucent, soft paper more opaque, mottled, and intermediate paper is just that, in between hard and soft.

Sorry essayk...Yes I do have a catalogue but I am detecting a tone in your voice..Hey, sorry to have bothered you, I will not make that mistake again..Thanks anyway.
Robert

I will struggle on my own...

wert,

No you won't, not if this forum can be of help. Please continue to ask. As a third party, I must say I did not detect anything in essayk's tone, just a straightforward question.

Please don't take offense. You made a simple mistake that would not normally happen with a flyspecker like yourself. I once commented to the effect of not seeing the forrest through the trees. When our focus is on the small details, we can easily miss the obvious stuff. It happens to the best of us.

Take this simple mistake and learn from it. Check the catalogues for colors first, then worry about the small stuff ...

Brian

NO! There's no TONE there. Please don't read that in, because it's not from me.

If you don't have the resources to help with the ID work we need to know that. Please don't take it as an insult.

I needed to know what to recommend, so I asked before jumping in. Sorry.

Littleriverphil;

Excellent pictures! Thanks for posting. It deserves to be a separate thread entitled "How To Identify Hard, Intermediate and Soft Paper"!

Judging by the color shade of the 2c vermilion, it is definately #183.

Thank you Bill.

Robert

Wert,

Although the subject may be talked-out at this point, let me take a stab at rephrasing Essayk's point. (My apologies from the start since it won't convey tone very well, but the intent is to be helpful.) Knowing what catalog you are using for a country is helpful, whether a simple USPS Guide to Stamps or a Scott US Specialized - or Gibbons or Unitrade or whatever, etc. It lets everyone know the right level to start building the most informative answer for you. I must admit confusion too, as your postings relating to Canada are very detailed and thorough in contrast to some of your questions about non-Canadian issues being far more basic. I can see that responders would be unsure where to start an answer. In hindsight, I know my own first post to this board could have asked my question more clearly too.

That said, for US, Scott could be more helpful by including a basic color guide for shades seemingly encountered only by philatelists. It takes a while to learn claret, olive bistre, lake (certainly not a blue color), ultramarine, buff, vermilion, sepia, etc. - colors that weren't in my Crayola box as a kid. I know some cringe at the idea of a printed color guide, but even a list such as "blue shades include: ultramarine; red shades include vermilion, carmine, lake; green shades include sage, olive, etc." would have been helpful when I was a beginner. As you have fould, Scott Specialized's identifier section is mostly helpful, but it provides little help for any particular series on a direction to approach from - whether to start with printing method, perforation rate, watermarks, paper, color, engraving subtleties, etc. I approach the large banknote issues differently than the Washington-Franklins or the Liberty Series. The fact that you checked the perfs on a stamp series that is all perf 12, shows that Scott does not communicate that well to the collector either.

John

This topic would be a great idea =hint= . But it had best be started by someone other than me.

Yes, and kudos, littleriverphil for that image. I saved it. Hope you won't sue me!


-IBFS

You're welcome to the image. I've got the stamps.

littleriverphil, I perceive that I Brake For Stamps and others think that it would be valuable for you to start a thread with your stamp paper identification image. Regardless of you doing so, I'll post links to your image when I'm trying to demonstrate identification of paper types. If you start a new thread, then it could allow for further discussion of paper type identification methods in a condensed manner.

Regardless, I thank you for posting such an illustrative image.