No Grill On Sc#114? Vs 125?

I have a #114 design stamp that I can find no evidence of a grill on the back. It don't know if it is a #125 Re-issue, because it doesn't seem to have a strong vivid color or design (but I have only rarely seen re-issues in person so I definitely could be wrong). And apparently 114a (w/o grill) is really rare...

so, I assume I'm missing something here. Any tricks to finding faint grills or slight partial grills when they are not readily evident?

Dip it.

I think I can make out three horizontal grill points that are weak in the bottom right quadrant toward center. Nice clear scan.

Just a guess here, but did you try applying lighting from multiple angles including from a side edges of stamp? Trying to maximize contrast across the stamp from several angles might make a few points pop out better.

Another guess, but I imagine 114s have been ironed to make them appear non-grilled. With a paper thickness micrometer this could be determined as compared to several grilled reference 114's.

Stallzer, dip it in watermark solution or just straight water?

Crouse27, thanks for the tips! I tried just eyeballing it at different angles and didn't see anything obvious, but I will do it again looking at the area you mentioned.

Thanks for the help!

stallzer suggests one method which utilizes watermarking solution (for example Ronsonol lighter fluid) to help see a grill. Another method is using graphite and smearing it on the reverse to highlight a grill. There are good and bad aspects to using graphite to help see a grill. Search around on this forum to find more opinions on the pros and cons about using graphite.

As for just you seeing (not trying to show us) a grill, oblique lighting is very helpful. This means to hold a stamp with a light source behind it. This is what Crouse27 is describing. Rotate it so that the plane/flat view of the stamp points towards the light source. In essence you are looking for shadows from the grill which sticks up slightly from the flat surface of the stamp.

Please don't hesitate to ask for further clarification or how to utilize any of the above methods.

Hist. DNA -- thanks for the clarification. I'll try this when I get some time this weekend.

Hi lukusw, I was sure earlier this year that I had found a #124 mint original gum, never hinged.
An experienced dealer at the NYC ASDA Dealer Show showed me the bleached but faint "X" cancel that showed on the back with watermark fluid, explained how the stamp is often ironed to remove the grill, and re-gummed.
Color me a bit smarter after my "education".

This might be of some help: the paper grain of the 1875 reissue is oriented differently than on the 1869 regular issue, so shrinkage is in a different direction. I heard this mentioned a long time ago but only recently got around to looking into it myself. I've found that the #125 is about a half millimeter taller and a quarter millimeter narrower than the regular issue. A half millimeter is about half a perf hole diameter so is noticeable. What happens is that all the stamps print the same size but as the paper dries it shrinks - across the grain, I believe. Same issue with flat-plate booklet pane singles appearing to be rare rotary press varieties - until one notices they are not just taller or wider on one direction but shorter or narrower in the other direction (rotary impressions are either taller or wider due to bending the plates into cylinders but remain unchanged in the other dimension).

Same difference for the 1875 reissues of the 1861 issue, except the reissue is noticeably shorter and a tiny bit wider than the regular issue. If you look at enough 1875 reissue (Scott #102 through #111) you begin to see how much more square in aspect they appear than the regular issue. This is significant because a sheet of 200 stamps is rectangular so there's only one way to orient the paper. It has to be manufactured differently for the grain to have a different orientation. Evidentially the paper used in 1875 for the small reissue quantities was not manufactured the same as for the 1861 and 1869 general issues.