Can You Help Me Decide?

I voted for number 1...great multiple and beautiful cancellation on the cover really catches my eye.

Essayk I like 1 but vote for 2 with the frames AND, as orstampman said, can you add photos to the side of each stamp of the reverse with good lighting contrast to show the grills clearly (or even an enhanced image of each)? A header saying grills are breaks in the paper to prevent reuse made by a steel roller with raised areas that helped cancel ink penetrate would make it more intellectually clear and stimulating to a passer by. It certainly is eye catching. The challenge to get all of that on a one pager though....

Great posting. Let us know rest you do.

After reading your remarks and weighing the options, I created two more pages. The first was directly influenced by the call, from more than one of you, for a bit more context/story on grilling.

To be perfectly honest, it is not possible to do justice to that story in a single page. It really would need a full frame since it is a story that begins more than half a decade before the Banknote Issues when the lion's share of the experimentation was done. The logic of the page of Continental J-grills is that it marks the END of that story, and it's a good candidate because its material is all sufficiently rare that such a page has a rather strong wow factor.

To get that kind of power and delve into the story more, I thought that showing a full set of early state H-grills and a strong set of early state I-grills might get me there. So, using a couple of your other suggestions I came up with this:




I like the array of colors, which I think are eye catching even for the non-collector. I hoped that adding slight blowups of the reverse side grill images for the two types of grill being shown might help keep the stamps distinct, which otherwise look the same. But I must confess that the whole concept deals with a seriously technical matter that few collectors, let alone non-collectors, find engaging or even tolerable. How many would understand that this page consists entirely of early state grills (not covered in catalog) for both the H and I grill types (which finally got separate listings in 2013)? For this story another page for the late state versions would be required.

Moreover, once I saw how crowded it is I had serious doubts about using it for the intended purpose of this display. I needed to completely rethink the matter.

In my next report I will tell you how I zeroed in on what will be my final effort and why I lean toward that for this display. As always though, I invite your comments, disapproving as well as approving. The fat lady doesn't sing until July.

That definitely has "wow" factor! As someone who understand all these grill types, and the time and money involved in finding legitimate copies... That is awesome. I think the story you are demonstrating with grills on banknotes is fantastic. More interesting than other exhibit choice 63

Absolutely All of them are fantastic!. What a beautiful collection of stamps!..Personally, I love the ones with the inventor, Charles steel signatures since it is part of postal history and test grills.Not often get to see both together. Thank you for sharing with all of us to be able to view in the forum.

While attractive, used H grills can be found fairly readily despite the high cat values. But finding a nice set of I grills is a challenge, in my experience they are much tougher to find.

I voted for number one, as its the one I would present. Not because it has the best wow factor, but because I am very interested in the classic edu's (and to a certain extent, imperfs).

Used 24c and 30c h grills are valuable and hard to find in sound condition!!
I've seen 1 or 2 on ebay but likely fake and probably not sound if they are real.
I have h grills up to 7 cents. I recently bid on a sound F-vf 15 cent h grill at an auction with certificate..but I was outbid.
It went for a few hundred dollars above my limit!
I agree that I grills are tougher!!

You may well be on the right track. If you can`t incorporate the later state grills, then I would make your language simple and say something like "Illustrated here are the earliest examples of the H and I grills."

And please forgive me as I was an editor for much of my career, but your opening sentence would be better served by starting with "Grilled arrays..."

I have spent the last few years breaking down large lots and collections, and I have seen a number of full and part sets of H grills, both sound and with minor faults. I don't mean to imply that they are handing them out on streetcorners, but they are around if one looks for them; ebay might not be the best place to do so.

Rev,

I was massively outbid at d. Kelleher auction. Unless stamp has a cert, I would never bid on I grill of h grill on ebay.. That is too risky. I have seen a few offered on ebay of 30 c and 90 c, none with cert and all faulty appearing. There are always many bids when they do rarely come up on ebay. I'm not good enough to tell if they are fake or real without a cert.

A cert is always a good idea. Some auctions allow reserves, so the final bid is never an absolute. I think that is the type of item that has to be purchased from a dealer. Expensive, but some items are best purchased that way.

I'm glad you're enjoying these. Thank you for the kind words.




I understand that sentiment. However, in this case the 24c and 30c H-grill items had two certs each and were purchased off ebay. Both are sound, and the 24c has a pedigree I was able to trace back to the late 1970s in a Siegel rarities sale. The seller knew what he was offering, and so did I, and the price was appropriate for the item. I caught it at the low end of its price swing, and that cinched it.

The 15c I-grill was bought off of ebay as well, but had no cert and was being offered as something else. Nonetheless I had a pretty good idea what it was and sent it to the PF after I got it. I submitted it as a 141A and the PF agreed.

I have purchased a number of other grill items off ebay, many of them as "sleepers" and this has allowed me to get a strong holding of the Banknote H and I grills in early and late states, with various splits as well, and even an authentic, unrecognized J grill. There have only been a few times I had to return something, and so far those have all worked out. The key is in being able to recognize the good and the bad in the material you collect - and I am sure I am not alone in realizing that.

The one drawback is that more sellers than I would care to see do not show both sides of a stamp. The ones who do get my money. I realize that it is time consuming and more costly to show both side of a stamp, but you would think that when a seller is offering a stamp with a $250 asking price on account of the grill, s/he would let you see the side that shows the grill the best. At that level why they do not routinely do this for stamps where the reverse matters is hard for me to fathom. But those who don't show seem to be taking over.

After our earlier discussion it became clear to me that the notion of "WOW factor" for a single page exhibit is an elusive one, because of the knowledge gap between members of a diverse audience. Prior to our discussion I had assumed that the "wow" factor revolved around levels of rarity/value and philatelic significance, but as some of you pointed out, the matter of what I call "recognizability" by the widest audience will trump all of that every time. By "recognizability" I refer to the qualities of a stamp which let it catch a viewers attention and hold it because of its distinctiveness or its fame. Fame usually has a very large price tag associated with it, and for me that is out of the question.

I needed to get a better handle on what kind of material in my collection would have the widest recognizability and also have high philatelic or market value.

When I went to the Collectors Club meeting last Thursday, I had a chance to discuss the idea of the open house display with the person heading up that effort, Cheryl Ganz. Cheryl has been a top flight airmail exhibitor for many years, and knows how that game is played. She also has skill doing displays for the general public after serving for several years as the chief curator at the National Postal Museum of the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Because we've known each other since the 80s, she is quite familiar with my collecting interests. So we got right to the critical question, "What is the audience." I was surprised a bit at her response. We are to prepare for seasoned philatelists of a world wide clientele. There will be a contingent from Great Britain and the Continent who do not collect US but are award winners in other philatelic arenas. Her strategy? Pitch for them and everyone else will follow. She advised that most of them will know the kinds of things in US stamps that are significant, even if they don't know the details. And for the spouses? Pretty stamps with a special story.


Bingo! With that the light went on. I have long observed that exhibits of stamp essays, specifically designs which were tried but did not make the cut, get high marks from non-collectors and collectors alike. So here is what I now propose to put into the display:




The page is not crowded, but has a nice range of colors. The material is distinctive but not often seen all in one place. It has catalog and market value high enough to keep it out of most collections, but one can survive if not too many examples come by at once. The die format is not what one expects for a stamp design, and that arrests the eye a bit. But for these large numeral essays, the oddness of their designs usually grab the attention of even casual viewers.

Many details about them cannot be shown on a single page. The progression of one design type into another in the second group. The parallels with specific revenue stamps for the excise tax. The back story of how Continental dropped the ball in bidding for the contract in the first place. None of these even get mentioned, among other unspoken subjects. But for a single page, there is plenty to look at. Right?

So, how does this one stack up against the others? Would the seasoned collector like it is much as the non-collector? Would the seasoned collector prefer one of the alternative choices?

These essays are unexpected enough, but I can see why they were rejected. Graphic designers in the crowd will be most interested, but how many of them will be present?

I think that with a bit more explanation, the grills are your best bet for something that wows the crowd. Since grills are primarily an American experiment, I think the English and others from Europe will be quite taken by your display. As for spouses, I think you need to explain why grills were even considered.

Admitting to my own ignorance, I didn't understand early on what grills were all about. Why would someone put bumps on stamps?