Forgery, Long Lost Love Or Just Lost..opinions Please

I have no idea what this would be considered besides a forgery but a forgery of what. These stamps have been in my family for over a hundred years without any additions in the last 50 years so I'm assuming it would be an old forgery of an A grill but with points up. What bothers me is that cancel looks to have been applied after grill was used. I'm not sure, I'm considered a newbie in this forum and rightfully so. It could be an essay but I'm looking for outside opinions and any input would be grateful.

The "A" grill DOES have "points up"! So your item could be;

1. A genuine "A" grill;

2. A fake "A" grill;

3. An essay grill.

It is definitely an interesting item......

I agree with Bill on all counts for this one. Though the A-grill was mainly applied to the 3c, a small quantity of 5c stamps were also treated that way. So it is worth having an expert take a look at what you have. I suggest you send this stamp (and the 3c with the wide grill) to Bill for a quick opinion. He can advise you on what to do next.

An A grill with all the perts intact? I think I have only seen one, a three cent.

Good point. But look how "perfect" the grill squares look. If it's fake, it's a well-produced fake.

First I would like to thank you guys for your input, I appreciate it. Now to thiese stamps. I've doubled checked myself to the best of my ability and just from what I was able to determine is that it would be good to get an outside opinion. (you guys) I just see on web where everyone thinks they have rare grilled stamp only to deceive themselves so I put myself in that category also. The 5 cent is an extremely clean press even on the perfed edges and I kept going back to that. Now who is Bill that I should get an opinion from. Again thanks for your input

My apologies for that bit of brevity from me.

Bill = bill weiss, a participant in this thread whose avatar is a sign reading "Weiss Expertizing"

He has a long list of credentials in the hobby and is a known and increasingly respected expertizer of US stamps.

Mr. Weiss the system will not let me send you an email due to being so new on the forums. If you get some free time could you send me an email concerning this. Thank you in advance. I appreciate your help

Bill, the grill columns look pretty straight from here. IIRC, you gave me a bad cert on a 91 when it was a fake because the colums weren't straight.

If this is an A grill.....all I can say is OMG.....one of the best US finds in awhile...and such a beautiful, complete copy......

Vrallis....good luck!

Just go here; www.stampexpertizing.com and find the info.

Bill