Green Cancel, Is There A Particular Type?

Thanks for flagging those yellow/olive green "cancels." They are now on my "suspicious" list. If I may, could we take a better look?

First to your question about "bleed-through." Here are the reverses, with the 2c vermilion on the left:




Here is a closer look at the 2c vermilion (#183) and the #212 1c of 1887.



These were scanned side by side according to the same scale, and color adjusted to the same specs (uncalibrated system however). The color match for the cancelling ink is dead on to my eye. I cannot tell if the ink on both had the same viscosity, but it is "clumped up" on both stamps even though the effect is more pronounced on the vermilion example. I tried to select a spot on the 212 where the black cancellation, which is very fragmented, was able to be seen in proximity. I think the olive ink shows up as heavier in this image, but that may only be because I know it to be so.

I am a bit chagrinned by this since the two stamps were acquired 20 years apart and the earlier (#183) had been purchased from a reputable seller known to me circa 1991. Without validation I assumed the olive ink was unusual but okay, so when the #212 came along in 2011 from an ebay seller I went for it. Didn't notice the residual black cancel in the seller's pics.

Now I'd like to ask your (group) opinion on another item I bought from Rich the same day that I bought the 2c vermilion. They have adjacent numbers in my old acquisitions database.




The cancellation appears to be a slight double strike of a concentric ring killer. This I think is a normal green with no hint of a black cancel on the stamp. But my experience with green cancels is quite thin, and I do not consider myself much of a judge on them.

How does this one look so far?

Although there is no sign of the mustard-yellow ink permeating the paper, the perf tips have clearly visible wicking, which is an indicator of the cancel being applied off-cover. This is similar to why one inspects perf tips for signs of re-gumming.



Another thing you might try is to check the ink under UV. I have seen modern fakes fluoresce where true period ink will stay dead, albeit magenta and purple inks. I've never personally seen this mustard-yellow.

It looks green, although there are darker lines on the left side that may be heavier deposits of green ink or possiblly part of another cancel.

Green cancellations are notoriously hard for me to spot. I have seen many cancellations that I thought were green, but was later corrected. My issue is that I am a Deuteranope (non-functional medium wavelength color cones) and a great many colors simply blend together or change depending on the background.

The yellow-green cancellations posted by Essayk are crystal-clear to me. The others could just as easily be gray to faded black as green.

Posted are two examples from my collection. The first is a certified green cancelled 114. The second is a CDS that looks exactly the same color to me, but apparently is not green.

Brian

Is it possible that the 2-cent vermillion has had a black star removed and the mustard-yellow applied over-top? The dark/light areas of the cancel do not match up to the dark/light area of the vermillion ink. They do perhaps, hint at weakened spots from a chemical cleaning. If one sets aside the dark spot being a paper inclusion, it might be a weak spot where the original black ink permeated so as to be un-removable.

Riley,

The one with the CDS is easy to discount as it's from Cincinnati, which never used green ink but used blue for many years.

Rileysan - Your #114 with the CDS is a very nice example of what I call "Cincinnati Blue" - which I too, see as having quite a bit of green (and black) in it. I have a half-dozen of so similar cancels in this color. I wish it were , but it's .

Regarding the Cincinnati cancel on the 3c 1869. For many years it was believed that all Cincinnati postmarks in this period were "blue" (even though some DID appear to be a little bit "greenish") and expert services always would describe those with a greenish cast to the ink as "greenish blue". But over the last decade or so, it is now widely recognized that SOME Cincinnati "greenish blue" postmarks are really "bluish green"! I have now seen a number of these including one or two certified by the PF and I've done a few. The color is a very dark shade (unlike Brian's, which is basically blue.

So bottom line, Cincinnati postmarks from this era can be found in "blue", "greenish blue" and "bluish green".