Early 90 Cent, Is This A 155 Or 166 ?

does anyone have a good place to search to tell the early stamps apart I have this one narrowed down to 155 or 166

I can't help much with your more general question, but 161 is on white wove paper. You ruled out 191?

not soft paper so not a 191

This is what info. I found:

"National's printings are labled carmine in color, while Continental's are labled rose carmine. The difference in color names is greater than the apparent difference in the actual colors. The easiest differentation, other than the type paper on which they were produced, is the distinctive printing impression differences. National printing is very sharp, clear and well detailed, particularly in the area of the hair and around the sideburns. The white areas also appear to be clear of color. Continental printing, on the other hand, looks slightly out of focus, and the whites of the face carry a general carmine cast. The hair and sideburn detail are considerably more faint."

- Copyright 1974 Voncorp. Philatelic Educational Card Number 120: 1870-1873 U.S. Bank Note Companies, and Their Differences.

"Scott #166 vs #155 (The 90c Perry) - COLOR - Again, there are no known secret marks on the 90c so, as with the 30c, the best way to tell these apart is by color but even this is sometimes difficult to do. #155 was printed in a carmine color while the #166 was printed in a rose carmine shade. The best way to try to separate these two is that the #166 carmine is usually of a deeper hue and has a slight tinge of blue whereas the #155 has a slight tinge of yellow."

Taken from: http://www.ebay.com/gds/A-Guide-to-...48206/g.html

d307menace, I disagree with those comments from gsquared7 about 155 vs. 166. 155 is usually "deeper" IMO (and has the blue tinge,) and if either of those numbers has any yellow in it, it's the rose carmine (or pale rose carmine) Scott 166...but to be honest, I don't see much yellow in either, so not sure where Gary is coming from.

I'm guessing it's just his opinion; he almost certainly didn't take that from any major philatelic reference. If anything, I think he has it backwards.

Scott 155 vs 166 is a very difficult identification! I bet there are a lot of 90c banknotes out there with conflicting opinions (IMO, the 155-166 range is almost a continuum of color; very difficult to differentiate in the middle.)

BTW, a great (but expensive) way to confirm the Scott 155 color is to compare it with a genuine grilled 90c banknote (Scott 144), LOL! Yeah, just buy the $2,500 stamp so you can identify the $300 one... Anyway, if I have some time, I'll scan some certified 155's (carmine & dark carmine) & 166's (rose carmine and pale rose carmine) and post them here in this thread so you can see the differences.