C-Grill? Z-Grill? F-Grill? And Possible Pigeon Blood?

I notice a grill on this stamp,but how does one determine what grill?

Please Offer Opinions?

Some Grill reading while awaiting answers.

http://www.stampsmarter.com/Learnin...8Grills.html

http://www.jamesdire.net/grill.html

the writing on the cover was writen to(something) e.s.williamson
and the cancellation displays CHICAGO ILLS.and a very "slim possibilty"
"the handwriting of charles dickens" to "e.s.williamson".i located a book by e.s.williamson of toronto canada where e.s.williamson wrote a whole book regarding the times of charles dickens.

this letter dated jan 21 maybe between the years 1861-1870.

adding an additional upload of the cancellation "chicago ills" dated jan 21...?

Pigeon's blood color stamps (US Scott 64a) is best thought of as a light pink stamp with some blue mixed in.

Your stamp is a deep rose red which as you can see contrasts greatly with the real article.

Here is a 64a for comparison from the Swedish Tiger website.

Definitely not pink, here is a certified Pink so you can see the difference.






Maybe someone with better eyes than me can see a grill but I see no evidence of a grill.

If you see a grill it is probably an optical illusion. The postmark on your cover was in use from November 21, 1860 to July 9, 1862 according to Chicago Postal Markings and Postal History by Leonard Piszkiewicz. The most likely date of usage is January 21, 1862. Grill stamps were not used until 1867. The book is available from the publisher James E. Lee and from Leonard Hartmann.

If you wish to learn more about the "Z" grill there is an excellent article in Volume IV of the Philatelic Foundation's Opinions series written by Jerome Wagshal. It is available for free download at The Philatelic Foundation's website: http://www.philatelicfoundation.org...inside-view/
Additionally you can find a good general discussion of the 1867 grill and the Bank Note grills in the three volume Brookman set available for free download at: http://www.uspcs.org/resource-cente...nic-library/ the information should be in the second volume.

It's a common un-grilled stamp. My opinion is that you do not have a lot of experience with US stamps. There is nothing wrong with that mind you, and you have some tools now at your fingertips to change that if you so wish.

FYI, I read the address as:

Mrs. E.S.W. Burson, Muscatine, Iowa, Box 3584(?).

Jan

Agree. And that doesn't resemble Dickens's writing.

edw_kim, did you post the correct cover?

i maybe heading to a new site called proveeverybodywrong.com

<prove everybody wrong> . com

we should title this site/something similar.. ha ha ha..

We were going to rename the site "prove-everybody-wrong.com," but quickly realized that a far more appropriate URL would be "every-poster-thinks-they-have-the-most-expensive-variety-in-the-catalog.com." Unfortunately, that seemed a little too wordy.

edw

Think of it this way... the expertise and advice here is free. I made the mistake like many others of using the PF and PSE many years ago to answer some questions you ask here. It cost me lots of money. And got turned off to the hobby. And to boot no one gives you an explanation or any education at the certification companies.

Or you could come to the realization that when you see 2 listing for a stamp and one was printed in the billions and one was a scarce special printing that you most likely have the one printed in the billions.

We don't want the truth to hurt, we just want to tell the truth.

The funny thing is that usually when you think you have it, you don't have it, but sometimes when you think that you don't have it, you sometimes might have it. You just never really know.