Found A #491 Unused!

492 on left 491 on right I believe.

Those two stamps are clearly different in the lower left and right ribbon areas and the toga button. If memory serves me right. What is the difference in Scott catalog value? How did you find it?

There is a big difference in value, I found these going through some stamps left to me by my great grandfather.

The stamp to the right appears more to possibly be 453 as opposed
to 491... and, 454 could not be ruled out entirely either...

Design-wise, the image's design characteristics lean most to 453...
i.e. the line characteristics in the ribbons match 453 and do not
match 491... and... the eyebrow is wrong for 491 as well as eyebrow
and the dot configurations above eyebrow, and more...

The first thing you need to do before continuing discussion is
to watermark test your stamp...

491 : no wmk
453 : single line wmk
454 : single line wmk

My bet is 453...

Uh oh, I think you may be right disi, I knew this watermark thing would come up sometime

My guess: right is Sc 444 , what is needed is to overlay the 2 stamps and compare widths.

Is there any ink set-off on the back of the right stamp? It does appear to be a flat plate printing. If it is a rotary (doubtful) its a type one.

Okay, thanks for helping. Both stamps show design thru foil test, left stamp is wider than right, there is ink on back of right stamp.

Chasa may be onto something... I hadn't considered the possibility
of flat plate since no mention of setoff was made initially, on the
assumption it was rotary...

The 444, however, falls into the "debated" full type-I class, along
with 406, 409, 411, 413 and others... so I wouldn't hang a sign on
this one and call it a 444 without scrutinizing it a bit further...

Design size for the 444 would be 18.5-19mm wide by 22mm high...

453, 454, 455 & 491 : 19.5-20 by 22

Added

Probably at this stage (albeit not mentioned) the stamp likely has
a single line watermark... and, taking into consideration Chasa's
suspicion of 444, this stamp (could also be) 482 imperforate stock
with added perfs...

So they both are flat plate?

Hi, Ciletaliph... no... most certainly your left stamp is a Type III
# 492 if no watermark, or 455 if it has a single line watermark...

Your right stamp is still in the 'TBD' stage...

To quote Al E. Gator in a current post on another item...




You should do two things at this moment... first determine and confirm
the watermark, then take the stamp's measurements... both in the
design, and its edge to edge dimensions...

Rsndall

Left stamp is 19.5 mm, right stamp is 18.5 mm wide, don't have any watermark fluid yet.

Ciletaliph... the most widely used fluid for watermarking stamps,
and used by most experts is Ronsonol lighter fluid... you can pick
up a bottle of it for around $3.00... it comes in a plastic yellow
bottle, and there's enough to watermark hundreds of stamps from the
contents of a single bottle...