US #361...?

Hi All,
Here we go. May have a #361 here, but need some help from you guys/gals.





http://www.jamesdire.net/W-F.html

Looks too white to me.

Cklem326....if you think it is a #361 bluish.
Send for certification.

PS....save your money

I think the few rare ones were all mailed in 1909

Clem326,,,Welcome to the forum.
I am no expert with American stamps, but I used my software to identify colours of your stamp and a true ""bluish" stamp..There is a difference between the two as these guys are telling you.

Clem, it's promising that the cover has a D.C. postmark, but I don't think anyone will be comfortable confirming a 361 until they see the back of the stamp. I don't know if that's a step you want to take at this point.

I wonder if a microscope would tell you anything more, considering the rag content of a 361.

send it in and let us know - we love longshots!

It's not bluish. If you've seen even one genuine bluish paper stamp next to a non-bluish stamp, you know them instantly. Here's an example in the national collection, showing the kind of tone you're looking for:

http://arago.si.edu/record_148781_img_1.html

All serious collectors in the US owe themselves a trip to the National Postal Museum in DC, next to Union Station, where you can view genuine original examples in exhibit frames in person. If you do, it sets all these questions to rest.

A common method of identifying bluish stamps is to scan them on an orange background; true bluish examples then really pop. You could make a mask by cutting a square hole in orange construction paper, the hole the size of the stamp, set it over the stamp, and scan them together. Don't do two scans; it makes the results unreliable. This might help observers here, but either certification or in-person review by someone who has previously seen or expertized bluish stamps is probably necessary.

Its not bluish paper, hence a #361. Although the bluish papers were printed it early 1909, the EDU for #361 is 5/18/10 with a Kansas City used. Other know cities are Detroit, Cambridge (Mass.), Fairport (N.Y.) and Rockford (Ill.) Johl states the "to press" date as 3/24/09.

One quality of the bluish paper stamps not mentioned yet is that they purportedly have tiny black specks that can be seen under high magnification. I haven't been able to study any up close, but many sources claim this. They claim that they are due to the composition of this special paper type and are visible from both sides of the stamp.

I have seen quite a few bluish papers, but I don't remember ever seeing black specks. Perhaps I did not look under high enough mag.

Thank you all for the imput.